China’s State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping announced on October 21, 2010, that China officially opened its own “World Map,” which was “China’s self-developed Web Map Service Website.” However, an Internet user pointed out on his blog that the “World Map” probably uses the data from the U.S. company DigitalGlobe, which offers the same image data that Google Maps uses.
On October 24, someone from China’s State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping responded that what the so called "world map" intellectual property rights refers to is the "service software," and not the "data resources." The data resources are from a commercial satellite.
The above news was reprinted on ChinaGate. BJNews published the original news report on October 25, 2010.
Source: ChinaGate, October 25, 2010
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