On 11/27/06, Steve Summit <scs(a)eskimo.com>
wrote:
Wow. That's very interesting. I knew there
was a lot of USGS
data out there, but I didn't know there was *that* much.
Here's a list of most if not all of it. Some of these are apparently
proprietary though (they are listed as for viewing only - no
downloading).
http://seamless.usgs.gov/website/seamless/products/listofortho.asp
Where the coverage is (only in the US, but starting to get a lot of
cities), the resolution is really good. That shot from Los Angeles
was 0.3 meters (per pixel). Some of the data is at 0.15 meters.
Geocover 2000, on the other hand, which covers the entire globe, is
14.25 meters. So outside the US most of the public domain imagery is
not very good (I think, please prove me wrong!).
Is such satellite imagery copyrightable in the first place, in the U.S.
anyway? Isn't it just mechanical imaging of the earth's surface, and
therefore no more copyrightable than a mechanical reproduction of the
Mona Lisa is?
-Mark