Streetdirectory dio PWNED

[UncleWolve]

As they say.. "Cho lang mai kwai lan.. lang bi ler ko ka kwai lan"

 

Taken from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetdirectory.com

 

Use of litigation

Since early 2004, Streetdirectory.com has gained prominence in several of its owner's successful legal action against schools and small and medium enterprises for what they see as unauthorised use of its maps. This is after Virtual Map has also won landmark cases against larger enterprises such as NTUC Income[1][2] and Suncool International, with the former's damages waived[1] and the latter's appeal being subsequently dismissed.[3][4]

 

Its owner is known to have hired an IT firm to conduct investigations aggressively against the unlicensed use of their maps on other websites,[1] and most of the defendants contacted by Virtual Map's legal team claim that they were not aware that doing so constitutes a copyright infringement. Nevertheless, they were liable for damages and lawyers subsequently warned of this fact in the local media.[1][2]

 

The justification given by Virtual Map was that enough skill and effort was made in using SLA data to create maps that the company can claim its own independent copyright to,[3] and suffered from a loss of potential profit when businesses reproduced their maps online without paying any licensing fees. Such use constituted, as Virtual Map claims, infringement of the Copyright Law and has angered existing clients who have legally paid to license their maps.[1] This position was endorsed by the High Court of Singapore, which gave Virtual Map the green light[3] to send cease and desist letters to hundreds of companies and organisations who have used the maps on their websites in a similar manner, demanding that they either pay up to $10,000 or more, or to face legal action.[4] In most cases matters were settled out of court.[1][2]

 

 

[edit] SLA v. Virtual Map

In October 2006, Virtual Map became embroiled in a civil suit against the ex-provider, Singapore Land Authority (SLA), a statutory board under the Singapore Ministry of Law.[5] Until July 2004, Singapore Land Authority (SLA) provided digitised data to Virtual Map non-exclusively under seven agreements that the latter has signed, and claims that the latter has infringed SLA's copyright by continually selling and redistributing its maps even after the expiration of the agreements.[6][7]

 

The statutory board is currently seeking damages, an injunction to prevent further use of the data by Virtual Map, an order to disclose its client's list and addresses, and to destroy all copies of the infringing material.[6] In its defence, Virtual Map has reiterated that its works have been sufficiently original, an argument which held in Suncool's unsuccessful appeal against the company.[3] The defendant has also claimed that SLA has obtained information from other agencies that it did not own.[8] On the second day of the trial, three SLA employees took the stand to testify that Virtual Map has copied "SLA's skeleton", which has been the "hard work, skill, labour and money invested by the government", and pointed out several irregularities in Virtual Map's work.[9]

 

The trial began on 8 January 2007. SLA has since set up an alternative website that allows non-commercial users to download its maps for free.[5] Eight months later on 7 August 2007, a district court ruled that Virtual Map's online maps on streetdirectory.com had breached SLA's copyright. District Judge Thian Yee Sze also held that Virtual Map should stop "dealing in maps which are reproductions of SLA's street directory vector data and address point vector data", and further ordered an inquiry into the damages due to SLA. Lawyers from Drew & Napier represented SLA, while Virtual Map was defended by counsel from Rodyk & Davidson.[10]

 

Streetdirectory.com lost its subsequent appeal on the decision, but it did not affect the earlier legal settlements against hundreds of businesses and organisations. However, it had to also temporarily shut down its website to replace its map data.[11][12]

[Gary84]

nvm lor...u can use www.skypigeon.com still

[DonDon]

Just when I ran out of idea on doing my mileage claims. Thks!

[UncleWolve]

http://www.map.gov.sg/StreetMap/ also good

[DonDon]

Thks!

 

Sad not so much $ to claim, just on & off and always rushing to appt w/o monitoring distance travelled.

[DonDon]

May I know how to calculate pt-to-pt distance from this site?

[Guyver]

Hyperlinked http://www.map.gov.sg/StreetMap/

[Guyver]

Thanks for the info ... really helpful ...

[Mivec9]

nvm lor...u can use www.skypigeon.com still

 

wow thanks for lobang.

 

Yah sometimes got retribution one...cannot be too much...like nkf issue

[Mivec9]

is this map.gov.sg good?

 

nowadays quite a few to try liao. but i feel the original streetdirectory better

[Cerealkiller]

any one knows what happened to SLA vs StreetDirectory case ????