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Webmapping API Licenses and Data Access

posted by Satri on Thursday May 24, @03:51PM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the give-me-the-world's-data-now-and-I-want-it-free dept.
Law Web Mapping Open Source Community Google Microsoft NASA Yahoo
All Points Blog offers an clear and to-the-point entry on the relationship between data and API licenses for webmapping apps, specifically Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! data into other webmapping apps such as OpenLayers. Meanwhile, The Earth is Square wonders if a workaround could revive a NASA World Wind plugin to access Google Maps data. From APB: "I had in my head that somehow OpenLayers was "doing something wrong" since it could pull in data sets from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, MultiMap into its own interface (go play with that!). With quite a bit of patience Frank explained that OpenLayer is doing everything correctly. It has an API key for each of the API providers (if needed) and follows all the rules of the license. So, how is this different from the Gaia team noted above that got shut down? That group was accessing the data directly from Google servers and not, as stipulated in the license, via Google software. (Google Earth has no API like Google Maps does.) Frank even showed me the code where OpenLayers dutifully uses its API key to pull in tiles from Google Maps. Google, he noted, even contacted the MetaCarta team to ask if there was any thing needed to further their implementation!"

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Gaia Reverse Engineered Google Earth Stopped 2 comments [+]
Several sources discuss the letter from Google's CTO to stop Gaia, an opensource project, to develop a 3D API to Google Earth. You can read a lot on The Earth is Square and on Ogle Earth. The Slashdot summary: ""Gaia, an opensource project to develop a 3D API to Google Earth , has decided to comply with a request from Google. Chief Technologist, Michael Jones, contacted the project with a request to cease and desist from all past, present and future development of the Gaia project. Amongst other things, they cited 'improper usage of licensed data,' which Google licenses from assorted third party vendors. They are going so far as to request anyone who has ever downloaded any aspect of Gaia to purge all related files. From the post to the freegis-l mail list: 'We understand and respect Google's position on the case, so we've removed all downloads from this page and we ask everybody who have ever downloaded gaia 0.1.0 and prior versions to delete all files concerned with the project, which include source code, binary files and image cache (~/.gaia).' How does such a request, (likely to have turned into a demand), affect fair usage? While the API is intended to interface with the the Google Earth service, Google Earth is nothing without the data. Yet at the same time, Google openly publishes their own API which uses the same data in the same manner.""
Technology: OpenLayers 2.3 Released [+]
The OpenLayers mailing list announced the release of OpenLayers 2.3. Here are the release notes. OpenLayers is in the OSGeo incubation process. From their about: "OpenLayers makes it easy to put a dynamic map in any web page. It can display map tiles and markers loaded from any source. MetaCarta developed the initial version of OpenLayers and gave it to the public to further the use of geographic information of all kinds. OpenLayers is completely free, Open Source JavaScript, released under the BSD License." To be honest, I'm enthusiastic about OpenLayers since it makes it very easy to generate mashups, and allows you to keep using Google Maps tiles, and to map GeoRSS feeds (this is still under construction).
NASA World Wind License Explained [+]
Because you can't legally install Google Earth (Free or Plus) at work, virtual globes licenses are important. The Earth is Square shares info from Patrick Hogan, the NWW project manager explaining the NASA World Wind licenses. From the post: "Patrick Hogan [the NASA World Wind project manager] has stepped up and posted this to the mailing list as an explanation to the licensing and how they all interact [...] Rather than try to decipher each of the issues expressed regarding the World Wind (WW) license, it should be clearly stated that NASA World Wind.NET and NASA World Wind Java, under the NASA Open Source Agreement (NOSA) license, allow for anyone to make 'changes to the core' and redistribute. This 'core' will necessarily fall under the NOSA. But, this *does not restrict* the ability for third-parties to combine the World Wind core with their proprietary extensions or applications that leverage this core."
Technology: Comparison Of Three Public Mapping Javascript APIs [+]
On his blog Niall Kennedy, compares three publicly available mapping APIs and demonstrates that "Yahoo! offered the fastest performance, the smallest total download, and the smallest memory footprint." Update: 08/08 21:01 GMT by S : All Points Blog adds a recent post on the Google Maps API vs Yahoo! Maps API.
OpenLayers 2.5 Released [+]
The official OpenLayers blog informs us OpenLayers 2.5 has been released. From the blog: "As of this final release, the OpenLayers 2.5 release closes 190 outstanding tickets, more than any other OpenLayers release to date! [...] Now on to new features! SLD, client side reprojection, improved documentation and examples, tile transitions… so many neat things that 2.6 will hopefully bring." See this previous post on what's new in OpenLayers 2.5. The Earth is Square adds a post on OpenLayers working on the iPod Touch. See related stories below, OpenLayers has been covered regularly.
NASA World Wind Java SDK 0.3 Released 1 comment [+]
The Earth is Square informs us NASA World Wind Java SDK 0.3 has been released. This Pat Murris blog entry provides numerous screenshots and an analysis of what's new. The Bull's Rambles blog reminds us this is truly a cross-platform virtual globe and links to the Java webstart app. Amongst the changes from EiS: "# - Memory cache refactoring and optimization # - Reimplementation of Polylines. Polylines on surface. # - Shape and icon dragging # - Math classes re-engineering # - WMS capabilities doc parsing # - Texture cache # - Proxy support # - Anaglyph stereo "
Technology: CartaLens Geospatial Digital Asset Management Solution [+]
All Points Blog discuss (screenshot included) the just announced CartaLens, a "geospatial digital asset management solution", which they say is Flickr on steroids. From the press release: "National Geographic Maps and MetaCarta®, Inc., the leading provider of geographic search and referencing solutions, today announced CartaLens, an innovative geospatial digital asset management solution for georeferencing, managing, retrieving and delivering digital assets. Unlike other digital asset management solutions that only manage structured content, CartaLens is able to search and retrieve location-based information from both structured content and a broad base of digital content such as photos, video, audio and documents, enabling users to fuse digital assets with maps and metadata in a collaborative and interactive viewing environment. [...] Updated maps, imagery, and geographic information are provided through ESRI, and are made available through ESRI's ArcGIS Server and ArcWeb Services." MetaCarta launched their Local Alerts service recently. MetaCarta also developed the initial version of OpenLayers, which surprises me rega4rding the use of ArcWeb Services.
Technology: Mapstraction Adds Support for OpenLayers [+]
The High Earth Orbit blog informs us Mapstraction now supports OpenLayers. What's Mapstraction? From this previous story: "Mapstraction is a library which provides a common API for Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft's javascript mapping APIs to enable switching from one to another as smoothly as possible." From the HEO entry: "Why wrap one wrapper in another? At conferences and get togethers, the devs and users of Mapstraction and OpenLayers frequently ask the question “What’s the difference between Mapstraction and OpenLayers?” The primary distinction between the libraries is a difference in objective. Mapstraction seeks to provide a simple wrapper to meet the primary needs of a mapping user. The purpose being to make it easy for a user to read a single API and then easily switch to any of the major providers. [...] With this new support, it now brings Mapstraction up to 9 supported map interfaces (Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Map24, MultiMap, MapQuest, FreeEarth, OpenLayers, OpenStreetMap)."
Microsoft Acquires Multimap 2 comments [+]
redgeographics writes "More acquisitions: Microsoft Corp. has acquired Multimap, one of the United Kingdom’s top 100 technology companies and one of the leading online mapping services in the world. The acquisition gives Microsoft a powerful new location and mapping technology to complement existing offerings such as Virtual Earth, Live Search, Windows Live services, MSN and the aQuantive advertising platform, with future integration potential for a range of other Microsoft products and platforms. Terms of the deal were not disclosed." SA and APB adds links to a TimesOnline article and a Guardian article.
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