OpenStreetMap charts a controversial new direction
> When it launched in the mid-2000s, most spatial information was owned by governments, and was difficult or impossible to access.<p>It bothers me that this sentence is used as if the facts behind it are a logical arrangement of consequences.  The fact that people are prevented from accessing data that they funded,  and by all rights own,  is an absurdity.<p>I appreciate that OSM exists,  but in a perfect world,  it shouldn't have to.