Re: Free charts?
- From: "Dennis Pogson" <dennis_nospampogson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 09:21:30 GMT
Daniel wrote:
Hi Peter,
Pete Verdon wrote:
I agree with most of what you said,> but I don't see why it has anything
to do with being a monarchy rather than a republic.
Same behaviour here in France and in a few other
European countries. Costly paper maps.
Let's assume we talk democracy... two distinct and
quite unrelated issues:
- government form (monarchy, republic or whatever),
- handling of tax-paid data, is it commerce-based or
strict "public service" are unrelated.
Good maps are essential for security. And of course
I'd like to get the same kind of quality maps I get
from, say, Michelin for roads when I move around Europe.
What is the cost for sailing all Europe with significant
up-to-date paper maps... horrendous, I expect. When you
buy a paper nautical chart, you're definitely paying for
other stuff.
Of course there are some confortable national commercial
monopolies here at stake hiding themselves under an
argumentation (limited volume, quality paper cost, printing
costs) that has lost a lot of its ground with time and
litteraly millions of pleasure boats at sea (and hickers in
the mountains by the way)...
Making paper charts has grown into a significant business
for a few government agencies with a commercial monopoly.
That's not exactly EC-compliant. And it has a the cost
in termps of safety with quite a few boats operating with
limited, outdated and/or inadequate mapping support.
I wonder if sailors association's lobbying at Brussel would
not be a better bet for nautical information. deregulating
the chart business is the way. Google or not, it will happen
in Europe. 2,5 or 10 years from now? That is the question.
Daniel
P-S: By the way is there a place to buy decent second-hand
paper charts for UK?
It does seem that governments the world over find maps and charts an area
they like to assume control of, yet NASA make their satellite images freely
available on the web, and the NOAA allow downloads of US-specific coastline
and topo maps/charts by anyone with access to a PC.
Perhaps we are living in an age where change is taking place gradually, but
the vested interests in most countries are fighting to hold their ground,
against the tide of popular opinion (no pun intended!).
As you say, we may see dramatic changes in a few years, but at the moment
the US lead in freeing up such data is not affecting the rest of the world's
governments' decisions in this matter.
Someone should start to look at, once and for all, the laws on intellectual
property, and how such laws can be used to transfer copyright to the
sovereign state, regardless of who pays the piper.
Dennis.
.
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- Re: Free charts?
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