[WikiEN-l] Google Earth screenshots

Sat Nov 25 20:58:08 UTC 2006

Anthony wrote:
> I say show me the creativity.  I don't see it.  I actually don't
> see much creativity in any satellite photography, but...

Um, have you ever looked at Google Earth?  It contains much more
than satellite photography.  Most major cities (including the
ones people are snipping scenes of schools from) are overlaid
with high-resolution photographs taken from airplanes.  Those
datasets were collected (as far as I know) by commercial aerial
photography companies, and licensed by Google for big bucks.

Typically you see two or three different copyright notices at
the bottom of a Google Earth screen, covering the licensed,
commercial photographs used, the data overlays (roads, rivers,
etc.)  applied, and anything else.  (And the notices change as
you pan around, and hit coverage from different datasets.)

The stuff ain't PD.  I'm prepared to be proved wrong, but as
far as I know, it's quite legitimately copyrighted.