For Want of a Better Title

Streetdirectory.com: My point of view

There’s been quite a bit said already. The current news is that Streetdirectory.com will be coming back.

Some people have said that closing down Streetdirectory.com was wrong of SLA. After all the map was free use; the maps were public domain. It’s a huge blow to open source and the development of the Singaporean internet industry. I agree with that comment to a certain extent. It does hurt a little bit.

On the other hand (Economics training for the win), Streetdirectory.com sued about 500 companies for using their maps, which was actually free-to-use maps since they cannot prove to the court that their maps were value-added on top of the SLA version. I’ve used the SLA maps (I actually use them over Streetdirectory.com), and they are as specific as the Streetdirectory.com ones. The only difference is that you can get driving directions (which I have no use for, I like to plan my own routes, their routes are not as good as MapQuest). Streetdirectory.com is not exactly the poster child for Open Source.

So I do think that SLA was within its bounds as a watchdog agency to order Streetdirectory.com to cease and desist suing other firms for using their maps, since the maps are free-to-use government maps. I do hope that Streetdirectory.com will sober up a bit and make their services more valuable to their customers and stop Odex-ing everyone. That’s the fastest way to lose goodwill. Especially if the thing you’re Odex-ing people for is free.