10-06-2018, 08:12 PM
(10-06-2018, 06:54 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:(10-06-2018, 05:41 PM)tomh009 Wrote: I think charging a reasonable fee for commercial usage of the satellite imagery would be a reasonable thing to do. And I do think Google could afford to pay for it.
I don't know what the practice is in other cities, though.
Google can afford to pay, but a random small startup (or just a hobbyist with an idea) can’t. Unless there is a serious possibility of not taking the imagery, it doesn’t make sense to charge for incremental use over and above the required governmental applications.
The price does not need to be the same for everyone. Lots of software and content is licensed based on the level of usage (number of users, servers, views etc). And non-commercial usage could be free. Yes, we need those images, but why should we not ask Google to help defray those costs? It's not as if Google lets other people use their imagery for free, either.
From https://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives...agery.html
Quote:Another reason why you don’t find imagery that is newer is that it can cost a great deal of money to acquire quality aerial imagery. The companies who spend this money need a way to recover their costs. More recent imagery is more valuable than older imagery. As a result, these companies are reluctant to have their newest imagery available for free for anyone to view in Google Earth. Read the agreements for Google Earth before you try to use its imagery for business applications (more information). You can’t sell or use the imagery from Google Earth for business purposes without permission.