Pocket GPS World - SatNavs | GPS | Speed Cameras

I saw a post on TechRadar UK blog today which discussed a particular bug-bear of ours so squarely on the nose that I felt compelled to post here.

Rarely does a day pass without an email from someone deriding us for charging for the speed camera database. Always along the lines of "you get the data for free from users so why are you charging for it, it should be free". Even those who thieve our database from pirate sites use this argument as a justification for their actions.

Some of you, unfamiliar with our history and the detail of what we do, will see the "it should be free" argument as a valid point. But even if the database was simply a regurgitated list of locations (which it isn't) then we would still have a right to charge for hosting and serving it.

But the fact is that we don't just sit here collecting your submissions and stuffing them into a spreadsheet. The true value is in the accuracy of the database, the fact that data is verified, corrected, compiled into an ever growing list of formats and published.

There are any number of free options out there, and all are riddled with errors, old cameras, duplicates etc etc. If you don't want to pay, then they are there for the taking. But they are free with good reason.

And what about all the data that is 'given' to us by our members? When we moved from free to charging some years back, we rewarded every member who had ever contributed data, be that one location or one hundred locations, with a lifetime membership. And we continue to reward those who contribute, with lifetime subscriptions for data that is accepted into the database.

We think that the way we operate is the best possible system. It rewards those who contribute and charges those who are happy just to have the data and use the service.

We all have bills and mortgages to pay and we work hard. I wouldn't expect anyone else to work for free and it's all rather galling when a small but increasingly vocal segment seem to think that anything internet or smartphone app related should be free. Why is our time any less worthy of recompense?

The original blog post can be read here. It puts across the point far better than I can and I urge you all to take a moment to read it.

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