Re: Do any GPS units let you upload your own maps?

On Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:28:55 -0700, Dan Anderson
<danderson2001@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

My response was to Jack's posting of the link to "Above the Timber".
"Above the Timber" asked Garmin for permission to publish maps and
was told "no." He is going ahead anyway and planning to sell topo
maps for Colorado for $79.95.

Dan,

I did not go back and reread it just now, but I seem to remember
someone - maybe you - stating that "Above the Timber" had asked
Garmin for the format, or perhaps it was a "license" to use the
format, and not for permission to publish and sell maps.

If someone wanted to get some kind of definitive ruling on this
matter, or even to understand exactly what the legal position is on
this topic, they would need to answer this question.

When IBM put out its first PC models, they published the BIOS code
that did all the low level software interface with the devices that
connected the cpu to the keyboard, diskettes, monitor, etc. And they
copyrighted that code.

When others wanted to make their own PC's, they couldn't use the
copyrighted IBM code, so they had to write all their own interfaces.
In order to ensure that IBM's copyright was not infringed, and that no
"reverse engineering" was taking place, the 3rd party mfgsr's BIOS
codes had to be created from scratch by programmers that had never
worked on or even been exposed to the IBM published code.

So they figured out what had to be done, made code that did exactly
the same job, and wrote the BIOS drivers that allowed companies like
Dell, Compaq, HP and others to build PC's that functioned more or less
identically to the IBM PC.

Did they have to settle with IBM? No.

If anyone were to do a similar process to duplicate the functions of
garmin's img format, would they need to settle with Garmin? I don't
think so.

Currently, anyone who produces their own maps to load into Garmin
receivers makes use of software from a couple of European sources.
Exactly how this sw was originally conceived, I do not know.

But I do know that it would be very difficult for Garmin to prove that
it was something other than a method I hypothesized in my post
yesterday, making the production, and even sales, of such maps
perfectly legitimate.

And I believe they should be.

Garmin only stands to sell more receivers as this market grows. They
should publish the format, and make it available. Look how the IBM PC
blew away Apple by exposing the innards of the box.

Where are Garmins maps of Asia?

I also find it disingenuous to ask for permission, be told no,
and do it anyway.

I agree. However, they should not have been made to feel it was
necessary to ask.

- Tom

.

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