Virtual Earth Commercial Use Licensing Annouced
The Virtual Earth/Live Maps blog has the news many of us have been waiting for:
Somewhere in the shadow of these huge announcements, new simplified licensing terms for the Windows Live Platform (WLP), including Virtual Earth, were rolled out. If you’re interested in using multiple services of the WLP, VE is covered as part of the broad license for the Platform. WLP is free for use on websites that have less than 1 million Unique Users and Commercial-use is completely supported in these terms of use! The license covers Contacts, Photos, Silverlight Streaming, Search, Virtual Earth, and Windows Live ID.
Yahtzee!
How is this of any benefit to ESRI users?
Custom data source in the Web ADF
Checkmate!
Google is going to have to scramble to deal with this.
Good news.
One thing that jumped out was under the VE TOU.
‘You are not permitted to use the API or service on any intranet or non-public website, unless you have a written agreement that includes such rights’.
In the battle for developer mind share, Microsoft has already had a very good week. Now if SQL Server and SQL Express were to come out with native spatial support, the fur would really start flying.
Rather than further beat on the shortcomings of the GE EULA, let me make a solemn threat instead: if it’s not changed by May 31st–Google’s Developer Day–I’m taking double rations from the Mountain View cafeteria…
BT
@BT
You and me both!
Yes, especially if there were a GIS package totally welded into Microsoft that would seamlessly leverage such SQL Server spatial capability. You know, read/write/edit with lots of users, automatically handle vectors and rasters, provide admin support, all that stuff. And better still if it could do that simultaneously with all the “spatial” DBMS packages using direct connections to their native spatial data types with no funky middleware or metadata table contamination that would cast such usage into some proprietary silo. Oh, and it should cost less than $400 and integrate perfectly with VE, since now a whole lot of people will be able to leverage VE for free and will want to hook up VE applications with cool spatial storage in SQL Server.
Gosh, I wish the GIS vendors would come up with something like that.
A 3rd party out of South Africa is on the verge of releasing SpatialDB, OGC compliant spatial extensions for SQL Server. We’re using it today on a project, and so far so good. We’re using it, of course, in conjunction with MapDotNet Server and Virtual Earth, the complete .NET platform for GIS 2.0 (GIS + Web 2.0).
Dimitri says:
Gosh, I wish the GIS vendors would come up with something like that.
Mark says:
A 3rd party out of South Africa is on the verge of releasing SpatialDB, OGC compliant spatial extensions for SQL Server
hmmm. who will get to the finish line first….
That’s interesting news out of South Africa. Do you have any idea if it will be free or if they will sell it, and if so, what the price will be?
The reason I ask is that just how interesting it is to support depends in part on the price, understandably so given that Locator (Oracle Spatial vector stuff) is free in Oracle Express and given the excitement evident in this thread over what has become free use of Virtual Earth in many applications.
If you don’t mind my asking, I see that MapDotNet Server is $3800 for a runtime and $1000 per year for a development license. Does that mean each developer has to spend $1000 per year on this and then you have to spend $3800 per web server? Is that $3800 per year or is that a fully paid license?
Dimitri, et al,
You can look at Diamond Software Concept’s website for more information on their spatial add-in for SQL Server here: http://www.diamondsoftwareconcepts.com.
As far as our MapDotNet Server, it is free to try out, but then you’ve got it right. It is $1000 per developer seat, and $3800 per server license. The maintenance fee for the server license is, however, ONLY $720 per year. Get the details here: http://www.goisc.com/mdn_purchasing.htm.
OK. Apologies for being thick, but to confirm, that is $3800 per year for the server license plus maintenance of $720 per year?
(The website explicitly mentions that the developer license is $1000 per year, but it does not say “per year” anywhere for the $3800 server license so I thought it best to ask.)
The Diamond stuff looks impressive. It would be nice to see some GIS clients emerge (like those for Oracle Spatial) to support them.
BT & Brian:
I have no idea of it’s capabilities, but how about this for spatial data in MS SQL server:
http://www.codeplex.com/MsSqlSpatial
Regarding MsSqlSpatial, our developers assessed that SpatialDB was closer to being ready for prime time. But that’s just what I was told, and I certainly wouldn’t want to take anything away from that project. I urge you to support that project if you have an interest.
And no Dimitri, the $3800 is a ONETIME fee for a server license, and the $720 is an annual maintenance fee for upgrades. Thanks.
[...] expecting a Google Maps type interface and the WebADF is not that (nor does it try to be). With the new licensing of Virtual Earth, we’ve decided that MapDotNet Server 2007 connecting to ArcSDE is the way to [...]
This ‘new commercial licensing’ isn’t really all that exciting given you still can’t deploy intranet apps. This is the real limitation in licensing that needs to be addressed by VE and GMaps. I find many more companies wanting to use these solutions internally rather than on their public web sites. Still waiting for options…
@Shane: You can still deploy intranet applications with both, but you have to pay a licensing fee to Google or Microsoft.