Comments on: OS puts the “No” back in Innovation

By: Time’s up for the Ordnance Survey…?

Time’s up for the Ordnance Survey…? — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:13:03 +0000

[...] Police crime map fiasco?) then block, then bow to public pressure and make excuses after Ed Parsons blogged about it and a large contingent of interested parties from all walks of life who found the application [...]

By: Computing, GIS and Archaeology in the UK » Ordnance Survey not so bad after all?

Thu, 21 May 2009 09:02:19 +0000

[...] might have seen this post last week about how the Ordnance Survey once again saved the universe from un-approved uses of [...]

By: Gavin Brock

Gavin Brock — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:20:05 +0000

Thanks Bill

The OS do have something that does 3D…

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/flythroughs.html

No details on how they generated them…

By: Bill Chadwick

Bill Chadwick — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:58:41 +0000

The French IGN have on line 3D mapping using Terra Explorer

http://www.geoportail.fr

Why don’t the OS do on line 3D mapping themselves rather than leave it to clever individuals like Gavin ?

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:06:52 +0000

@Justin, that is the case for data that is published on the web and then indexed by Google, that is not relevant in this case.

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:55:46 +0000

Gavin has been reconnected. The issue is with Googles own Terms and Conditions.

“These Terms state that by using your content (Ordnance Survey data) in Google Earth you/they grant Google a right to that data (”By submitting, posting or displaying Your Content in the Service, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute Your Content through the Service and as search results through Google Services”

The OS are only trying to protect their intellectual property.

By: Martin Daly

Martin Daly — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:42:56 +0000

Well you have to do that, so that OS can count your tile requests.

But the API and the API key are bound together, so one is not supposed to use one (the key) without the other (the API), as with Google Maps et al.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:03:28 +0000

No I don’t think this is a case of tile scraping, Gavin was using his API key..

By: Martin Daly

Martin Daly — Tue, 19 May 2009 07:59:06 +0000

Steady on. All that OS have done, as far as I can see, is get upset about direct access to their tiles outside of their API. Does that sound like a familiar restriction? "2. Restrictions on Use. Unless you have received prior written authorization from Google (or, as applicable, from the provider of particular Content), you must not: (a) access or use the Products or any Content through any technology or means other than those provided in the Products, or through other explicitly authorized means Google may designate (such as through the Google Maps/Google Earth APIs);" And does this cease and desist ring any bells? OS are by no means perfect, but people in glass houses and all that.