Street map website down after lawsuit loss

April 4, 2008

Street map website down after lawsuit loss

Company which lost copyright case and appeal aims to be back online in 2 days

By Chua Hian Hou

A POPULAR website that features interactive street maps of Singapore has been taken offline after its parent company, Virtual Map, lost a court battle against a government agency, which accused the firm of copying state charts.

The site, streetdirectory.com, has been down since Tuesday, said Virtual Map's managing director Firdhaus Akber.

But the company is currently working on a set of replacement maps, and hopes to bring the site back online in 'about two days', he said.

In January last year, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) sued Virtual Map for copyright infringement, accusing the firm of using government maps after a licensing agreement between them had expired.

Virtual Map lost the suit in the district court, and was ordered to stop using the infringing materials. It appealed to the High Court, but lost again.

The company is appealing to the Republic's highest court, the Court of Appeal, to reverse the decision, Mr Firdhaus said.

He said the private company has called for a meeting of its shareholders some time 'in the next couple of days'.

This will be to decide whether the company continues to provide what he claimed were 'the best online maps in Singapore', or quit the business here and 'focus our efforts elsewhere'. Virtual Map also offers online maps in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

Mr Firdhaus said his company has spent 'millions' putting in value-added data like points of interest, on top of the maps that SLA had provided.

The new site will use maps created via the company's own surveys, he said.

Alternative online maps are available at sites such as SLA's StreetMap (www.map.gov.sg/StreetMap) and Show Nearby (www.shownearby.com).

chuahh@sph.com.sg

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