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The concern is that the search company dropped the name Persian Gulf from the latest iteration of the online mapping system, Google Maps. Threats of legal action and serious damages have been made by Iranian officials if the name is not added back to the map. While Iranians prefer the term Persain Gulf, much of the region prefers Arabian Gulf. Currently, the water body remains unnamed by Google.
- AP
The suit was made public back in March but seems to have just hit the media today. The story, as told on the geocoder.ca website:
Since 2004 we have crowdsourced* the generation of the "Canadian Postal Code Geocoded Database." When you make a query to geocoder containing for example this information "1435 Prince of Wales, Ottawa, ON K2C 1N5", we then extract the postal code "K2C 1N5" and insert it into the database that you may download for free on this website.
This allows you to look up a postal code (eg K2C 1N5) on www.geocoder.ca, or www.openstreetmap.org or a number of other sites that use geocoder.ca data and technology.
Since we do not have a postal code dataset from the authority on postal code assignments, namely "Canada Post", we derive and guess this information sometimes with pretty good accuracy results.
Now "Canada Post" has sued "Geocoder.ca" in Federal Court, asking "Geocoder.ca" to take this database down from this website, and also to "pay Canada Post" damages on lost business the later has suffered by not selling enough copies of their own postal code file (last time I checked at $5,000CAD a piece).
A defense fund has been set up and already has several hundred dollars. The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) is representing geocoder.ca in federal court.
- geocoder.ca via @openstreetmap
PanoMap, based in Florida, filed a patent infringement case against Apple and Google last week. It's really about the display of data, not the capture and thus the allegations are against big users of these types of display.
The patent, US No. 6,563,529, was filed back in 1999 and issued in 2003. There are a total of 28 claims in the patent, but the broadest of them essentially cover a mapping system that displays a wide map view in combination with a more detailed view of location specifics. The claims also require synchronization of the two views.
Why LightSquared failed: It was science, not politics
Harbinger investors sue Falcone, Harbinger fund over LightSquared
Cornell is leading research into whether the northern lights interfere with GPS. The rocket launched Saturday in a NASA funded study. We're not going to let anything - natural or man-made interfere with our GPS!
Struggling LightSquared seeks DoD spectrum swap; hedge fund investors line up to sue Falcone
LightSquared defaults on payment to spectrum owner
- CIO UK
Why You Should Regret LightSquared's Setbacks
- TechDirt
Macon County, NC had a hearing on Feb 14 to determine if it should keep its recent hazard maps as part of its county ordinances. The maps were complex to make and issue of accuracy and scalability have been raised. This is one technical article for the local paper; I hope residents read it before attending the meeting!
Public Data Sets on AWS provides a centralized repository of public data sets that can be seamlessly integrated into AWS cloud-based applications. AWS is hosting the public data sets at no charge for the community, and like all AWS services, users pay only for the compute and storage they use for their own applications.
There is some Census data already there but geo could represent far more!
West Milford, NJ is in the middle of a lawsuit filed by its former GIS manager. The fellow is alleged to have updated wetlands designations on local maps to benefit some homeowners. He was suspended in 2009 and has file suit for wrongful termination. He changed the wetlands designation from "wetland" to "suspected wetland." The local paper says he used ArcExplorer. An expert witness was hired to help support the city's case; he does not have a GISP, but is a licensed engineer. This is one of those times I'd like to see a GISP.
