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Is OpenStreetMaps blocked in China? If not, there could be huge precedence to subvert this.
OSM is banned in China [0]. [0] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_China#Legalit...
There's a couple of regulations for selling GPS enabled devices in China (I am a software guy on a major PND manufacturer with products being sold in China). - The map data is scrambled (GPS coordinates are encrypted). - To correlate a GPS position with the map data, you plug the HW position through an encryption library (which you have to compile in a specific government building in Beijing). - Border drawing is str…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
OSM is banned in China [0]. [0] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_China#Legalit...
I developed a project in China using OSM and it's certainly not blocked there (i. e.: The host is accessible). The problem of OSM in China is its limited data-set. For example, in the city I developed the project OSM had only the major streets, and the map was quite old.
from paxswill's link:
"According to the Surveying and Mapping Law of the People's Republic of China, private surveying and mapping activities are illegal in mainland China."[0]
[0]http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_China#Legalit...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I developed a project in China using OSM and it's certainly not blocked there (i. e.: The host is accessible). The problem of OSM in China is its limited data-set. For example, in the city I developed the project OSM had only the major streets, and the map was quite old.
Probably because private mapping is prohibited and there is no public-domain map data. from paxswill's link: "According to the Surveying and Mapping Law of the People's Republic of China, private surveying and mapping activities are illegal in mainland China."[0] [0] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_China#Legalit...
For the record there is no public domain map data in a lot of countries in Europe. The USA has the sensible approach of 'all government data (incl. maps) should be public domain'. In Europe the state owned mapping organisations do the mapping and claim full copyright on the maps & data.
The 'illegal to make your own maps' is, obviously, not the case in EU
This is not a problem with using a GPS, the problem is the shift from using different mapping technologies. Trying to get satellite and the map portions to line up is very difficult. Trying to do it on a global scale with data from multiple sources... you get the idea. Now please get back to China bashing and don't let the facts get in the way of your political/religious feelings. Remember to include lots anecdotal e…
Not really. There are loads of different projection systems & coordinate system around the world, so all GIS software is able to deal with converting coordinates and reprojections etc.
Satellite & aerial imagery always has to be georectified and made 'location aware'. Once you've done that, it's trivial to reproject it to whatever system you want.
http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=15&lat=31.21741&lon=121...
You can see the noticable difference in street geometry.
There's a couple of regulations for selling GPS enabled devices in China (I am a software guy on a major PND manufacturer with products being sold in China). - The map data is scrambled (GPS coordinates are encrypted). - To correlate a GPS position with the map data, you plug the HW position through an encryption library (which you have to compile in a specific government building in Beijing). - Border drawing is str…
Do you guys put Tibet as disputed area on like 90% of the maps in the West? Really?
"There's China" I said. "And there's Taiwan."
"You know Taiwan is really not that big." she said.
"What do you mean?"
"Map makers show it larger than it really is in order to exaggerate its importance."
I was a little weirded out by that idea. This girl was pretty intelligent, she seemed to know some math and logical thinking. She was in the process of becoming a CPA.
For better or worse I responded with practical analysis: "How would that even work? You and I could go buy maps right now for navigating ships and airplanes, those would have to be accurate in order to function. We could compare them to this one and if they are noticeably different we could complain and the company that made the map would lose face. Why would Rand-McNally give a shit about the political importance of Taiwan anyway, enough to risk their own credibility?"
"They just do. All map makers do this." She would not be convinced.