tomtom on the Neo1973

[Attila Csipa]

On Monday 02 April 2007 08:13, Hans L wrote:
> I guess it is a question of whether the map providers are willing to
> cooperate and divulge the details of their file format to an open source
> project, or alternatively converting their data into some open format for
> use with such a project.

In my experience this is highly unlikely. Their first thought would be content 
protection - and on OpenMoko you (should) have none. When they license data 
to software companies, it's easier, since they have NDA-s, contractual 
obligations, etc, but they would see no incentive to open up their formats. 
The income from end users buying open format data is minuscule compared to 
the possible damages from pirated data and/or lost bulk contracts from their 
point of view. And to reiterate a personal opinion about commercial software 
on OM - please do not change or put a minute of effort in OpenMoko to make 
commercial software run easier than any other software (unless you get a 
substantial donation :) - if a company is to make some money on OpenMoko 
users, let it at least pay it's own costs in full.