Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition

Posted by timothy on from the protecting-people-from-benefits dept.

jfruh writes "A French court has ruled that Google is unfairly subsidizing its free mapping products, making for unfair competition with paid services. This might seem ridiculous, but keep in mind that Google started charging for use of its mapping API once the free version had come to dominate the market."

5 of 238 comments (clear)

  1. Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Still trolling, I see. A few quick notes:
    * Google doesn't have a monopoly anywhere, even in search.
    * Google Maps is not given away, it sports ads, and the API costs money to access
    * You fail to mention Mapquest, or MS maps. Why just sue Google for its maps? Because it is the best one out there?
    * Why should Bottin be kept alive? Why not Garmin?

    In short, you're wrong on two fundamental counts: that this is anything but protectionism of the most basic nature, and that somehow Google Maps is both special, and not, in the world of online map services.

    --
    Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
  2. True depending how you consider the whole issue by Rotten · · Score: 5, Informative

    As somebody working on the remote sensing/mapping/gis field for 10+ years. I tend to agree.

    It's a long debate, but clearly the new concept of "paid api" it's confusing.

    I perceived gmaps as a free tool in the beginning, but now, as they charge, it's no longer a tool, but a competitor.

    Many hi definition data available "freely" on google maps/google earth, it's the result of a private customer paying for that data, and the by some weird agreement between the companies that run the satellites and google, the information ended up "FREE" on google maps.

    A real life story:
    I paid 250+K for 1 meter imagery (ikonos) for a project that was covered in google maps using old 30m imagery (90's landsat). Months later google has the 1m coverage i ordered and paid for, available for FREE to anyone else.

    So i'm not only competing against google, but against people who no longer needs to order a quality work, since now it's there FREE.

    Duh! That's certainly UNFAIR.

  3. Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago by pijokela · · Score: 5, Informative

    Still trolling, I see. A few quick notes:
    * Google doesn't have a monopoly anywhere, even in search.

    Google search most certainly is a monopoly. A legal monopoly does not require 100% market share. Companies have been deemed monopolies with under 50% share and Google is way higher then that - go google it if you don't believe me.

    Now, having a monopoly is not illegal, but using your monopoly profits to corner other markets is illegal. This is exactly the same thing that MS was convicted of a decade ago. Google it. When MS was killing Netscape it took the authorities years to act and the trial also took forever to end - Google just hasn't been doing this long enough to end in court yet.

  4. Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago by repapetilto · · Score: 5, Informative

    You are confused.

    A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand.[citation needed] A free-market economy is one within which all markets are unregulated by any parties other than market participants.[citation needed] Free markets contrast sharply with controlled markets or regulated markets, in which governments more actively regulate prices and/or supplies, directly or indirectly.[1] In its purest form, the government plays a neutral role in its administration and legislation of economic activity, neither limiting it (by regulating industries or protecting them from internal/external market pressures) nor actively promoting it (by owning economic interests or offering subsidies to businesses or R&D). A free market is not to be confused with a perfect market where individuals have perfect information and there is perfect competition.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market

  5. OpenStreetMap by b0bby · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you want a really free map source, try openstreetmap.org & some of the apps which use their maps. Still a work in progress, but much improved over even a year ago. If every geek on /. cleaned up their neighborhood map it would be better than the paid maps - I've certainly added features like weird one way streets and things around me which don't show up on commercial maps.