What is Digg?66 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+27"25 November 2006, we've got the letter from Michael Jones, the Chief Technologist of Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Local search, requesting us to cease reverse engineering and improper usage of licensed data that Google Earth use. We understand and respect Google's position on the case, so we've removed all downloads from this page and we ask everybody who have ever downloaded gaia 0.1.0 and prior versions to delete all files concerned with the project, which include source code, binary files and image cache (~/.gaia)."
Google...let them keep working on it :(
+dugg ricperry - ricperry1, on 10/12/2007, -3/+23It might be nice, as long as Google would allow the developers to continue. Now, if only we could get some OpenSource imagery.
- calhoun, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14The aerial imagery in Google comes from a combination of free data (offered by NASA and the USGS in the US, largely) and expensive, licensed commercial imagery. The developer(s) of Gaia are dumb for ever have trying this, 15 minutes of research would have shown that what they are doing would be against the licensing agreements Google has with the imagery providers. Google did no evil here, they cannot legally have allowed Gaia to continue.
In any case, NASA Worldwind is working on a Java / OpenGL version to be released sometime in 2007. The Gaia people could have better spent their effort on this, which has years of development behind it, rather than start their own, doomed from the start, project. - MasterJediYoda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12$ torify wget http://gaia.serezhkin.com/gaia-0.1.0.tar.bz2
--04:27:33-- http://gaia.serezhkin.com/gaia-0.1.0.tar.bz2
=> `gaia-0.1.0.tar.bz2'
Resolving gaia.serezhkin.com... 89.108.68.13
Connecting to gaia.serezhkin.com|89.108.68.13|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 64,892 (63K) [application/x-tar]
100%[=================================================================================>] 64,892 40.29K/s
04:27:38 (40.25 KB/s) - `gaia-0.1.0.tar.bz2' saved [64892/64892]
$ md5sum gaia-0.1.0.tar.bz2
9a9f5a3e5095dae5dbf2e6dd998d1f5d gaia-0.1.0.tar.bz2
The bzip tarball is still on the server, please digg this up for archival purposes so when this floats around the net on bittorrent etc people have an md5 hash so they know they are getting the real deal. - MightyGiant, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16Open-source doesn't directly mean cross platform. It's not ironic.
- clueless, on 10/12/2007, -6/+16here is one that's still working:
http://gaia.serezhkin.com/gaia-0.1.0.tar.bz2
get it while it lasts - Yetimon, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14Not necessarily - Google would be paying a lot of money for the imagery, and the terms of their license probably prohibits this sort of use, so the cease & desist is understandable.
Now the community-added metadata within Google Earth is possibly a different matter... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+15Boo flippin hoo. Google watermarks their map data.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Even though this has been said a number of times, none of you listen!!
Google didn't have a choice in the matter, they were using proprietary imaging and allowing free access to it would mean that Google is violating the copyright on the imagery
The only reason it's proprietary and not open source is because (a) it was adapted from Keyhole and (b) it uses Qt toolkit, which they paid 3000 bucks for and thats proprietary
And none of you probably have even used the API, it's just fine, it works great, the current API is good enough to do virtually anything you might want to do - MightyGiant, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Their map data? I think they watermarked the Earth. They do own it you know.
- Yurkshat, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13He is saying it is ironic because it is open source and Windows-only.
It is also unfortunate of course. - championchap, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Think I must quote Bender again.
"Thats not Ironic it's just coincidental!"
"The use of word expressing something other than it's literal intention! Now that, IS.. Irony!" - bobjimbob, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I managed to compile it from http://gaia.serezhkin.com/gaia-0.1.0.tar.bz2 and it works fine. Here's a screenshot of it http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8074/gaiali9.jpg
- klepto, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8How is open source and for windows only ironic?
There is alot of open source apps out there that only have working versions for linux.
Regardless, I'm highly dissapointed in google. - Ninwa, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12NASA World Wind being Windows only is unfortunate, not ironic.
- WhiteRaven, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Ironic things are funny, therefore funny things are ironic? damentz, that is pathetic.
Bicycles have wheels, therefore anything with a wheel is a bicycle. Oh, wait... - zielgruppe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I second this.
It's all about the data, which is horrible expensive in this case. Gaia is an attempt to provide free (cracked) access to this data. And that's leeching in my opinion. Do not misuse the Open Source Concept for such crap. - finite, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12***** google! This project has apparently been active since april, and they shut it down after it gets on the front of digg? WTF?
I now seriously fear for another project which i will not name here (maybe google did not know about this one until it was on digg?!) - macewan, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7He should have known that this wasn't legal. For goodness sakes, Google Earth is available on OSX, Linux and Windows.
- colinm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"NASA is refactoring the implementation of World Wind to a multiplatform API-centric architecture, both in .NET & Java."
http://www.worldwindcentral.com/wiki/Road_Map - Otto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4>>>"I don't see how. Is anyone aware of a licensing restriction?"
The data is fetched via HTTP, yes. However, it's a) encrypted and b) requires authentication to their servers. The decryption algorithm doesn't look like anything normal to me (although it's rather simple), so decrypting it could be a DMCA violation in the USA. The authentication part could be violating one of many computer trespass laws.
It's probably a license restriction to Google to make the data available only in certain ways, however they do have a legitimate legal argument for disallowing other people to access the data directly. It's their data. Using it in ways they don't want to allow, and have arguably taken steps not to allow, infringes upon their rights.
The Google Earth API is rather extensive and supports quite a lot of possible customization. There's no need to steal their data and write your own software to do most things people would want to do. If somebody had a legitimate need for custom software, they should buck up for the expensive data as well. - calhoun, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@finite: "IOW, it sucks Google decided to arbitrarily kill the open source google earth clone."
Its not arbitrary, Gaia can of course continue, but they can't access the imagery Google has licensed from the satellite/aerial data providers. As macewan said, they should have known it was illegal right away. - noseeme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I say someone should try to port WorldWind.
- thomashallock, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3WTF, the received a letter from the future? It's still Nov 24th in Pacific time.
- buddylee415, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Ummm....isn't Gaia just the spirit of the Earth and the one who sent five magic rings to five special young people? Where's the Captain Planet software?
- sreeks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3For all those downloading and looking at making it work, pl look at the last line of the gaia's message on the web site
"and we ask everybody who have ever downloaded gaia 0.1.0 and prior versions to delete all files concerned with the project, which include source code, binary files and image cache (~/.gaia)." - zielgruppe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yip, WMS/WFS is the way to go. And worldwind is supporting the OGC standards and is open source. Why reinventing the wheel?
- Stonekeeper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Irony has nothing to do with words being used for different meanings or humour.
Irony is, eg, Microsoft bitching about other people's file formats being incompatible.
Irony isn't supposed to be funny and certainly isn't "rain on your wedding day".
That's just bad luck...
It's not that complicated people!!! - geeked, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The download has been removed. Oh well.
- sumgi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4That is a brilliant idea, now I'm off to reverse engineer me some valve engines and maybe some adobe products as well. Lets get this open source movement on the road! How about an open source mp3 player? We'll call it the OurPod...or not. I'm sure Apple wouldn't mind if we just got a few ideas from one of their older models!
- bnolsen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Source code mirrors anywhere?
Regardless of the legal status I'd like to see what they're using technology wise ... programming language, UI, etc.
Keyhole access *might* be interesting but WMS/WFS is more useful since it's an open standard. - baker99, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Google Earth is not free as all the fan boys keep claiming, it is ad supported and they track your viewing habits which is worth a lot of money now days. In an era where everyone is so concerned about privacy, and ad blocking/cookie deleting software is becoming more common everyday, I don't understand how so many people are willing to give up their privacy just so they can see their house.
- redog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1no ppc-linux love from google, and now they killed this...thats evil IMO.
- jon1012, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Just canceled my adsense and adwords accounts today because of this.
- 5of0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Intense work on World Wind Java (cross-platform) is underway, and a beta should be available within a few months.
- Scatropolis, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6"25 November 2006, we've got the letter from Michael Jones, the Chief Technologist of Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Local search, requesting us to cease reverse engineering and improper usage of licensed data that Google Earth use. We understand and respect Google's position on the case, so we've removed all downloads from this page and we ask everybody who have ever downloaded gaia 0.1.0 and prior versions to delete all files concerned with the project, which include source code, binary files and image cache (~/.gaia)."
Too bad... - michaelbeckham, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3http://gaia.serezhkin.com/ < Direct link
- whappo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Did anyone manage to get it before they took it down?
- finite, on 10/12/2007, -6/+6But Google's proprietary Linux software isn't available for PowerPC Linux users – much like Adobe Flash, Gizmo Project, and most other proprietary Linux software (such things are typically x86 only, but in the case of Flash and Gizmo there are (somewhat inferior) ARM versions available also).
Free software, meanwhile, can be improved and ported without the original authors' help, so it is obviously much more likely than non-Free software to be ported to many platforms.
So for millions non-x86 Linux users, the difference of free vs non-free is often actually the difference of being able to use the application *at all* vs being unable to.
IOW, it sucks Google decided to arbitrarily kill the open source google earth clone. - Clemenceau, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2It's Windows-only now, but it is open source. Just give it some time, and it'll be available for the other two OS's as well.
- Eccles, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0@argoff
The data, like your internet access, has an authentication protocol (in your case, userid/password.) Gaia was hacking it like a person setting up spambots does to Windows machines. So Google does have the right to keep Gaia out.
We're just going to have to launch an open-source satellite, that's all. Or perhaps radio-controlled planes. - omnithought, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Great Idea! Let me know when it's ready.
- crilen007, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Screenshot mirriors?
- hiscity, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1So what you're implying is that if gaia (or another open source project) were coded using the google earth api, there would be no licensing issue?
It appears that google is protecting an existing income source as long as possible. Their servers are $30,000 yearly. I haven't been able to find a price for the enterprise versions of google earth (fusion, client, etc.). The pro version is $400-$600 yearly. http://earth.google.com/earth_enterprise.html
It appears that gaia was able to provide features sold in corporate google earth products, such as loading up customer produced shp files (*), meaning that the customer could add their own maps as a overlay. (* - an outdated industry standard, originally developed by ESRI)
I'm astonished to find so many here defending a global corporation against a 'little guy" grass-roots project. It looks to me like google eliminated competition using intimidation or simply bought off the main developer.
We may have had a glimpse of the future where... google merges with microsoft, ("googosof"). It gives me the same creepy feeling I had as a kid watching "The Blob." Especially because of all the google apologists here. (... or "shills)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051418/
If I'm right, (note the "if"), gaia won't be back. Google killed "mother earth." - clueless, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3now i'm a newb... and i need your help (W:stupid question ahead).
once you have all the libraries that it needs, do i just copy and past the src for those lib into the src folder of gaia and then compile or ...?
would really appreciate it as it would mean my entrace into the open source world. - omarciddo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I dugg this cause its kinda cool, but i really don't see what the big deal is. I mean, it's not like Google Earth is bad; it's available for Linux, it's free, and there's Google Earth API. I don't see the point in having an open-source alternative to a free app that was already good in the first place.
- hiscity, on 10/12/2007, -8/+5@Yetimon
I don't see how. Is anyone aware of a licensing restriction?
There is no license for accessing a url.
Certainly the google earth license does not apply.
Nor do I see anything in the api for kml... http://earth.google.com/kml/kml_intro.html
I understand that the notice on the gaia site referenced googles comment about "improper use of licensed data," but that may be google license with their aerial photo providers ... and not applicable to users of 3rd party software.
It appears now that google killed an open source project. I'll maintain that's evil -- until shown otherwise. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2has anyone used NASA whirlwind... it may be open source but it sucks compared to google earth.
would be nice to see this GAIA though - bnolsen, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Google ends up having to pay transactional fees to the owners of the proprietary data sets.
Of course the users of those data sets pay subscription fees to access this data.
I'm guessin (maybe incorrectly) that the gaia project figured out how to get access to these proprietary sets which would artifically boost google's transactional fees. - argoff, on 10/12/2007, -11/+7
Excuse me, but the the URL's that link to google earth image tiles are like any other image URL on the internet. It's not like these people kicked down googles door with an ax at 2 am in the morn and cleaned it out. If google is so offended, then they are free not to have their content on the internet that anyone with a mouse and a browser can click, view, link to, or download. Don't put data out on a global public network and then get all offended when someone else uses it a way you didn't plan. -
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