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Can an Open Source Map Project Make Money?
Roblimo writes "Bing and Mapquest both use output from OpenStreetMap.org. Mapquest supports the project with money for equipment and access to the code they've written to integrate OSM's work with their display. Bing? They just take from the project and do nothing for it in return. This may be okay in a legal sense, but it is a seriously nekulturny way to behave. Even so, having Microsoft's Bing as a reference might help the project's founder make money. They've put a lot of work into this project, and it's doing a lot of people a lot of good, so they certainly deserve some sort of payback, either direct or indirect. They have a few ideas about how they might legitimately earn a few bucks from their project while remaining free software purists. Do you have any ideas, yourself, about how they might turn a few bucks from OSM?"
In the UK we would consider your behaviour vulgar.
Skipping your place in the ordered queue of customers by slipping money to the barman?
Poor show old chap, poor show.
It's not a bad thing to buy a drink for the bar folk, but expecting particular favours as a result just seems wrong. Very American.
Didn't say they were, just saying that fanboys didn't like you.
Well, ok. Undoubtedly true.
But the thing is that never stopped me from having good karma before. My opinions haven't changed. Which means either:
1) This site has become so much more extremist that it's significantly more difficult to maintain good karma if you're not part of the groupthink
2) I pissed off some single individual who has no problem abusing the mod system to lower my karma
Considering the options, I'd prefer to think number 2 happened.
Comment of the year