[Gdal-dev] Nautical Charts

[Todd Jellett]

Roger and Frank,

BSB format nautical charts are now all encrypted. If you buy from MapTech
you will get a viewer which will allow you to view and print but you will 
not be
able to access the data programmatically.

Only the very early ones are not encrypted.

Obviously, MapTech considered encryption to be cheaper than legal action.

Todd

At 03:23 PM 4/28/2004, you wrote:
>Roger Bedell wrote:
>>Maptech sells the charts I need for the Caribbean for $149.00 in BSB 
>>format. Two questions:
>>
>>1)       Will GDAL read these?
>
>Roger,
>
>GDAL will read BSB files.  Note, that they are normally georeferenced
>with ground control points rather than being "rectified".  This means you
>might need to "gdalwarp" them before you can use them in some applications
>that don't support import with GCPs.
>
>>2)       Anyone know of a free or cheaper source for these or similar 
>>nautical charts?
>
>I thought NOAA used to offer some for free download, but I am not sure if
>those were only samples or in some other way limited.  It would be nice to
>find a free (or even just alternate) source to avoid dumping money into the
>hands of Maptech.
>
>Speaking of whom, it appears they decided not to follow up on their threats
>of legal action against me last fall.  I haven't heard from them since.
>
>Best regards,
>
>--
>---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
>I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
>light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
>and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent
>
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