[OSM-talk] Good deal on Garmin GPS unit

[Robert Scott]

On Thursday 06 July 2006 08:43, Nick Black wrote:
> Yeah, its kind of ironic that the new Galileo system is being touted
> as "liberating" Europe from the tyranny of American control, when the
> ESA are giving no garuantees that we won't have to pay subscruptions
> for some services.

Galileo will be free for ~4m accuracy. There's nothing they can do about that. 
The data will be there in the ether for anyone to pick up. Receiving systems 
are mostly implemented in a form of software, and software patents are 
unenforceable in europe, so there's no real licensing potential.

The data for ridiculous accuracy (~1m, ~40cm, ~10cm) will be encrypted and 
access to the (rotating I imagine) keys will be sold to industry for big sums 
of money.


robert.