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LOOKING FOR DIRECTIONS: Users of streetdirectory.com can no longer access Virtual Map's online maps. Instead, they are greeted by a tongue-in-cheek notice saying the maps 'have escaped out the window'. -- MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN
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COMPANIES still using Virtual Map's online maps on their websites are starting to look for alternative providers.
This is because a court order banning Virtual Map from using copyrighted material owned by the Government also applies to the maps it supplies to customers.
While Virtual Map did not say how many of these have switched map providers, there are signs that some are deserting it.
Yellow Pages' website, for instance, switched its map provider just two weeks ago, said the directory service's marketing communications manager, Ms Sharon Liew.
Meanwhile, competing online map providers like V3 Teletech have reported an increase in business.
After the High Court ruled against Virtual Map in late March, V3 has been getting 'three to four inquiries every week', said the firm's general manager, Mr Adrian Long.
Not bad, considering it had to go knocking on doors to get just one to two deals a month previously, he added.
While few of its 30 or so customers explicitly said they were switching providers because of the lawsuit, Mr Long believes the Singapore Land Authority-Virtual Map spat is one of the main reasons they did so.
Virtual Map is the company behind what used to be Singapore's most popular map website, streetdirectory.com
It also sells digital map images to companies, typically for use on their websites to provide directions to customers.
According to Virtual Map's website, it has more than 500 customers.
In 2004, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) sued Virtual Map for using copyrighted SLA materials after it no longer had permission to do so.
Virtual Map lost the case in the District Court. It appealed but was turned down in late March this year by the High Court, which ordered it to remove the materials that infringed SLA's copyright.
Virtual Map subsequently removed the maps on streetdirectory.com
According to an SLA spokesman, the High Court order currently in force also applies to Virtual Map's customers, so 'individuals and organisations using street directory maps supplied to them by Virtual Map should remove them as soon as possible as these are infringing maps'.
So far though, The Straits Times understands that SLA has not taken action against any Virtual Map customers.
A Virtual Map spokesman would say only that the firm is currently notifying its clients of the situation. The firm is also making an application to the Court of Appeal, Singapore's highest court, to seek to reverse the High Court's decision.
If Virtual Map gets its maps back online, as it had previously told The Straits Times it was trying to do, it may yet win back some old customers.
Ms Liew said Yellow Pages 'will evaluate Virtual Map's merits against those of other service providers and decide on the vendor most suited to our product strategy...when we need to consider a change in vendor or product direction'.
chuahh@sph.com.sg
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