Omg streetdirectory.com is down and out
Personally, I have only been using streetdirectory and to my horror, it has shut down after losing the appeal against SLA. This means I have lost my trustworthy internet streep map. On top of that, I tried going to other two similar website and sad to say they aren’t even anywhere near to the standard set by streetdirectory.com and Google map will be the next target for SLA. We will be left with really sucky internet street directory. Time to get a hardcopy of it just in case.
Filed under news, opinion, singapore |POPULAR online map StreetDirectory.com has shut down, after the company behind it, Virtual Map, lost its appeal against the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) over copyright infringement last week.
The SLA, which originally issued Virtual Map a licence for its maps of Singapore, sued the company in January 2007 for continuing to use the SLA maps even after the licence had expired.
Virtual Map lost it case in the District Court, and was ordered to stop using the infringing materials. It appealed to the High Court, but lost again.
The site was taken down two days ago, said Virtual Map’s managing director Firdhaus Akbar, but the company is currently working with a set of replacement, non-infringing maps, and hopes to bring the site back online in ‘about two days’.
The are based on its own surveys, he said.
The company also intends to appeal to the highest court, the Court of Appeal, to reverse the decision, he said.
An audibly bitter Mr Ackbar, who was interviewed over the phone, said the privately-held company is calling a shareholders meeting either on Friday or Saturday to assess its position.
The meeting will decide whether to continue to provide what he claimed were ‘the best maps in Singapore’, or quit the business here and ‘focus our efforts elsewhere’.
Virtual Map also offers online maps in countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.
Mr Ackbar said his company has spent ‘millions’ putting in value-added data like points-of-interest, on top of the maps SLA had provided.
Alternative online maps are available at sites like the SLA’s StreetMap and Show Nearby.
5 Responses to “Omg streetdirectory.com is down and out”
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This is so unfortunate. I use streetdirectory.com quite often.
Huh.. are u serious they shut down coz of that? I mean I know they lose the appeal… but just now I went to the site, and the reason given was they going to update their maps and come up with new services. Sheesh. They lied…! *shake head*
Mr Dew: i think its the same for everyone. other than streetdirectory.com others are pretty crappy
Zek: haha well well u cannot trust the corporate world
Online line map is from the old world. Free Nokia maps is the way to go!
Hi you can try StreetDB.com as an alternative.
Website is http://www.streetdb.com
Check it out