Web 2.0 - Not as free as you might think
Google
I'm doing masses of work at the moment with Google maps and I've recently discovered Google's Enterprise Maps service for use in non-public and internal sites - I wasn't even aware Google had a distinction between the two.
Now, I'm not in the US or Canada where the service is running, so can I use the Maps? If not when can I and how much will it cost?
BBC
There's a BBC "behind the scenes" e-mail list where the programmers and other Web end types hang out. One of the ex-BBC chaps posted a message today saying he'd found a way to get hold of the BBC's (and therefor the Met Office's) weather data is a really clean XML feed format. The BBC have a really clean site for weather information.
http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/msg01876.html
Someone from the BBC saw this post and responded thusly: -
"As you all know, the data in the weather feeds isn't actually owned by the BBC - the BBC has an agreement with the Met Office to use the data. The good people in BBC Weather have been negotiating with the Met to get this data publically available, but that's been a lengthy process. Obviously, we have to find an arrangement that keeps both the Met and the BBC, and you lot on the list happy."
There's much more to it than that and I'll let you read the whole message if you are so inclined: -
http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/msg01877.html
Sadly, I'd already spent an hour or so putting together a slick downloader to parse all the BBC id's out and then use Google's GeoCoding to look up the longitude and latitude information.
Free
So what can we use, and what can't we use, in this era of feeds and API's people still scrape data from other people's sites, law suits ensue and people get upset. You need to carefully read liscence agreements and ask permission where you're not sure if you can use someone else's data - but not only that, you may have to ask them if you can use it in a commercial way too.
What do you think?
I'm interested, what do you think about these closed and open API's, about the licenses which are applied and the way in which they're applied.