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And the US is emperor of pointing satellites at the Middle East? There aren’t other satellites outside US/Israel jurisdiction that can fill it in? Or they’re no
by SilasX 5y ago
And the US is emperor of pointing satellites at the Middle East? There aren’t other satellites outside US/Israel jurisdiction that can fill it in? Or they’re not allowed to pass it on?
- lbotos 5y agoSee https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27187416 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27187416 Google being a "US Company" they are following that law.
- skissane 5y agoKBA doesn't actually apply to Google. KBA applies to operators of imaging satellites, Google's suppliers such as Maxar. In practice, it doesn't apply to distributors, only acquirers. (The text of KBA talks about issuing licenses for "dissemination" of satellite images, but you don't need a license to resell satellite images, or buy them then give them away for free like Google does.) Legally, there is nothing stopping Google from using a non-US imagery supplier to get higher resolution images of Israel into Google Maps. In practice, they probably don't want to. It is walking into a political minefield, and Google doesn't really gain anything for themselves by walking into that minefield.