Ok I’m going to get flamed for this, but I just don’t get GE’S EULA/ToS, as far as I can tell it states personal use only, but most of the uses I see on the net are not for personal use, is everyone buying the pro version? Or are Google turning a blind eye? Also the way it reads unless you get a broadcast license you shouldn’t be sharing videos or screenshots of GE, now practically every blog and video community has GE videos or screenshots, is this classed as fair use, IANAL so I just don’t understand.
On the subject of applications using GM or GE data Google seems pretty clear, it’s a no no, they shot down GAIA and the Google maps plug-in for World Wind, but what about these –
Develop a free compatible client for Google Earth. (The Google Earth client is non-free specifically in order to impose Digital Restrictions Management.)
Google Maps Images Downloader is a cute tool that help you to get small tile images from Google Maps. All downloaded small images are saved on the disk. You can view downloaded maps by MapViewer.exe Or you can combine them into a big BMP map by Combine.exe.
a wonderful tool that lets you cut maps of the world based on those available on maps.google.com with automatic calibration for OziExplorer. It’s just a matter of selecting the area you’re interested in and selecting the zoom level. You’ll get a .jpg file and its companion .map file ready to use in OziExplorer
Now before you say Google hasn’t noticed them yet, remember it’s googles job to index the web and they have a huge team of well paid lawyers looking out for this kind of stuff. so are they sticking to their “Do no evil motto”? Or just waiting to pounce?
Their “Do no evil” motto is a croc.
Just look how they operate in China for example. So much for an American company upholding the idea of free-speech. I know, they didn’t want to lose business in China. I thought principles mattered, not the money. *snicker*
Or better yet, giving the lamest excuses as to not recgonize certain national(us) holidays. Even when they recgonize other nations important holidays.
And after reading Ed Parson short write up about his new gig at Google. It reinforced my idea Google is a bunch of granola-crunchers, who feel but don’t think. Alot of lava lambs paints such a pretty picture.
Frankly I’m getting tired of people thinking GE is the be-all, end-all for geospatial. But it goes to show the ignorance of people out there in the “mainstream”. I guess there couldn’t have been anything else prior to GE. *sigh*
KoS
Keep thinking like that and you will end up like me ;)
Just like MS didn’t care about piracy until they got the ultimate lock on the OS market, Google will wait to enforce their property rights until it is maximally beneficial for them.
Google censors China criticism in U.S.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55107
More examples of Google “doing no evil”….hahahah
KoS
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