Who should pay for geographic data?UK charges for data whereas US makes data available free of cost.Whos right

Question

Basically who should be payn for the data? Should geog data be made free to public? Geog data means google earth, google maps.Incase its free for public terrorist can plan their attacks.So considering all the points wot do u think? Im doin a research on the article 'MAPS FOR FREE BUT WHO PAYS?'. plz help

Answer 1

I got the data of earthquake recorded in India at the time of Tsunami ( of course 2 hours before) after 22 months of struggle. I paid just Rs ten as the fees as per the Right information act.Daily I get the data of earthquake from US for free of cost. These types of data's should be made available to benefit the people at large.

Answer 2

Geographic data such as Google Earth et cetra are basically maps that have been researched, collated, edited, proofed, published. This all costs money: why shouldn't the originators be fiscally compensated?
In the UK and elsewhere access to this data is provided by direct purchase. In the US payment is made but hidden within ISP costs, subsidised through the sale of advertising opportunities (the same as Yahoo!) or other not so visible means. Ultimately everyone pays somehow.

Answer 3

You have a lot to learn. As Robert Heinlein used to say, TANSTAAFL: There is no such thing as a free lunch. The cost of obtaining geographic data is enormous, and someone has to pay for it. No one pays the full cost, because to do so would be to recreate the government agencies and resources used to gather, store and make the data available to the public.

The only remaining question is, should there be a fee for the data that reflects the cost of making it available to an individual requester, or at least the copy cost? As a taxpayer, the requester has already paid his/her/its share of the cost of government. If an additional cost is incurred by providing the data to someone, it seems only fair that that additional cost should be paid by the recipient.