Where are the new maps?

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Cloyd

Massachusetts, where I live, provides its aerial photography for free for anyone to download. Not surprisingly, Google uses this imagery (that my state taxes helped pay for) for Maps and Earth. Doesn't stop Google from slapping their copyright on the imagery that they didn't produce or pay for.

So, this means that we just need to find the materials that Google Maps has ripped off.

Paradoxically, a Google Search on "Copyright free Satellite Images" pays good dividends, at least if you're willing to dig. Look for images taken by government-owned satellites such as Landsat or IKONOS.

Here's one decent source that I found.

http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/

Even better, this site lets you search images by year (good for getting older maps which show certain parts of the world before massive development) and even by month!

Here's another royalty free source, with open license:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/

And another:

http://landsatlook.usgs.gov/

There are probably others.