Singapore govt kills streetdrectory.com

Posted on April 5, 2008 by Benjamin Koe

Singapore Land Authority has sued the best online map service (IMO) in Singapore, Streetdirectory.com over copyright infringement, and won. The site has now been shut down to the disappointment of many including myself.

Some alternative map services are:

  • Google Map - Just type “Singapore, Singapore” into the search box. This service doesn’t have buildings and structures, just shows roads.
  • Yellowpages Singapore Map - Very good for finding specific addresses.
  • Singapore Expats Maps - Focused on places of interests and destinations for expats in Singapore.
  • StreetMap@Singapore - SLA’s map service. Man this one’s slow.
  • MapFinder - All I can say is that it’s not loading.
  • Rednano Maps - It could be good, if it actually works. Some how its down today.
  • ShowNearby - Another one good for searching by address.

What in the world is happening to Singapore?! First our home-grown Creative Technologies creates an online fiasco by stopping a good member of the community from modifying drivers and now this.

Why must legal action be the solution? Why not embrace the good work that is done and work together to build things that benefit the community? At the end of the day, no one cares that SLA won a copyright infringement appeal, everyone is just pissed that they can’t use their favourite map service.

Thanks for making life a little bit more difficult.

Update: They’re coming back! Yeah, a lot of people hate streetdirectory.com for suing others while they don’t pay their own dues, but somehow its a necessary evil until someone builds something better. We’re looking at you Google!

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13 Responses to “Singapore govt kills streetdrectory.com”

  1. Singeo, on April 5th, 2008 at 2:47 pm Said:

    Seems to me it was more like a case of assisted suicide. Virtual Map (the owners 0f streetdirectory.com) decided to start suing people for using their maps illegaly. At the same time Virtual Map was using the SLA’s maps illegally. Pretty dumb if you ask me.

    If people are interested in the facts about the case they can be found here and here.

  2. Benjamin Koe, on April 5th, 2008 at 9:05 pm Said:

    Thanks for the details Singeo. It’s a pity because it was a good service while it lasted.

  3. Vic, on April 6th, 2008 at 6:22 pm Said:

    Perhaps you should read this too…

  4. Epilogos, on April 7th, 2008 at 12:55 pm Said:

    I believe your link to StreetMap@Singapore is wrong. It should be http://www.map.gov.sg/StreetMap/

  5. Benjamin Koe, on April 7th, 2008 at 10:40 pm Said:

    Thanks Epilogos, I’ve made the changes in the post.

  6. Anonymous, on April 8th, 2008 at 3:14 pm Said:

    Singapore Land Authority is actually using tax money to build the map, now the question why should public even need to pay for using it if the public is going to benefit from free service ? We know how Singapore government work. There is lack of transparency and accountability over profit earning through licensing. In this aspect, we may as well make the map free for public usage.

    Strangely, no-one even propose of making it free like what Google has done. Maybe we already attuned to the concept of Singapore Inc where to get gov service, we need to PayAndPay endlessly.

    A government masquerade as a business entity under the pretext of government is the most dangerous form of corruption because corruption will prevail under secrecy and non-transparency, and legally. If Singapore Land Authority sue, are they using TaxMoney again for lawsue ?

  7. zippy, on April 9th, 2008 at 7:19 am Said:

    you can try using firefox and a plug in call ‘minimap sidebar extension’

  8. Chuang Shyue Chou, on April 9th, 2008 at 10:14 am Said:

    In my opinion, it is simply very hard to find any sympathy for Virtual Maps.

  9. Anonymous, on April 9th, 2008 at 3:08 pm Said:

    i think virtual maps deserved it. it’s just a pity that home users will not have any access to the map service in future. it would be good if someone else had the same efficient mapping service as them. the singapore govt actually do provide free mapping service to the general public but the website takes ultra long to load your destination. the paying part is when businesses use their maps. ultimately, if virtual don’t start sueing ppl, they would not be in this position.

  10. Over Kill, on April 10th, 2008 at 7:10 pm Said:

    i also think Virtual Masp deserves it, they are using illegal maps and still dare to sue people.

    its not govt kills streetdirectory, it should be streetdirectory kills itself.

    the other maps introduced, StreetMap@Singapore and Show Nearby are also quite useless in my opinion.

    I can see effort on Show Nearby trying to improve their services. So I will wait before I start commenting on it again.

    But as for StreetMap@Singapore, for god’s sake, improve your servers please. You are loading like how my great grandmother would walk from point A to B, only my grandmother can walk faster then StreetMap.

  11. Streetdirectory.com is back, but it doesn’t work « The eOK .network, on April 16th, 2008 at 2:44 pm Said:

    [...] Singapore govt kills streetdrectory.com [...]

  12. Larry Lim, on April 27th, 2008 at 12:04 pm Said:

    There were already talks of this happening last year - a friend of a friend is the programmer for SD.

    It’s also apparent that they were going to lose because RJS, the guys managing SD, started coming out with lots of new (weird) services …including SEO training.

  13. Life after Streetdirectory.com | Armchair Theorist, on April 28th, 2008 at 2:43 am Said:

    [...] I looked through Benjamin Koe’s list of alternative map services, hoping to find a successor worthy of my bandwidth and clicks. Which one did I [...]

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