Endoh’s Dungeon

After DK’s post, there has been an apparent twist in how this saga is paving itself out. Instead, Virtual Map finds itself in a extremely tight and non-compromising position with the possibility of being sued on both ends. Is the greed backfiring on VM?

I was actually quite appalled when I read that VM fined or threatened with legal actions on close to 500 businesses. I was expecting a smaller figure, and nothing 3-digits too. I am sure at this point, VM’s harsh enforcement is being compared to Odex’s hunt on illegal downloaders who were served the same treatment. For a while, it seemed that businesses that promote and activated harsh legal actions against the culprits are often found to be the one also breaking the law.

I do find alot of humor in such incidents, though.

What a twist, if the culprits decide to reclaim their fines because VM was not licensed at that point and are equally guilty of copyright infringement? If anybody is to ask me, I’ll say reclaim it back. Due to my own work environment, I have began to look at companies who seek to monopolize the various industries with disgust. Personally for that matter, my mentor has often taught me that nobody in this world can earn every single cent - not even the number 1 richest dude on Earth.

Streetdirectory.com is useful, I agree full-heartedly. In fact, I have used it so many times to figure my way around Singapore, especially with weird road names. There are countless new roads being built every year, that we will not be able to see the entire network on the ground… until you have the opportunity to take a helicopter and look at the entire Singapore from the air. Online maps are also a good integration into websites and look at Yebber’s integration of Google Maps. It makes things alot easier to locate, isn’t it?

On the other hand, I begin to wonder what’s the philosophy behind such services. Are they meant to serve the mass in the likeness to public service, or is it another money-spinning tool? No doubt all of us can surf through Streetdirectory.com freely, what could be the deciding factor for business to switch to using other map providers? Is it due to the high prices that VM charges? I wouldn’t know, since I have never used VM for any corporate matters.

And so, Streetdirectory.com is here to stay… or so it says. How is VM going to pull this off, that remains to be seen. In fact, the minority and majority comparison is brought up once again. But not refunding the fines they imposed on others when they have been proven guilty in the Court of Law is the equivalent of daylight robbery. It’s almost close to the likes of a police officer arresting a member of public for attempting to offer a bribe, only to be found guilty of bribery due to another sum of money he has accepted several years ago. Irony… Irony… Irony…

Lastly, I am however glad that Streetdirectory.com is staying and additionally, they took the trouble to assess the strength of public hostility towards their legal actions. The latter, is the most important of all.