[cycomanic]

This is a great read about the technology and ideas behind Google earth.

I have one criticism: the story confounds stealing the idea (in itself a very fishy concept) and patent violation. It's a popular misconception that these two things are relatated and to the authors defense it probably is the same in the Netflix documentary. However I think it's important to be precise when talking about these things.

[avibarzeev]

I think it's great to give credit to ART+COM for making the demo they did at the time they did it.

Building a PC app that does it much better is also worth recognition IMO, and the Netflix show denies that.

The IP issues were resolved, but I think it was important to point out why there was no infringement for people who might not understand the details as well.

[kohlerm]

The US patent system is broken anyway, so who cares? It still seems likely that they stole stuff. Google used the same quadtree numbering as Art and Com, that being a coincidence is very unlikely

[munchler]

It's not unlikely at all. We're talking about numbering four tiles in a square, right? There are only two natural ways to do it for anyone who writes in a left-to-right, top-to-bottom language:

    1 2

    3 4

Or (less likely):

    1 3

    2 4

In binary, note that both of these patterns naturally assign one bit to left-right, and the other to up-down, which is a very desirable outcome. E.g.:

    00   01  (0x row)

    10   11  (1x row)

   (x0  (x1
   col) col)

[q-big]

> It still seems likely that they stole stuff.

(Illegal) Copying is not theft

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTybKL1pM4

[kohlerm]

In practice they stole the opportunity to make money with what the ART and COM guys had done.

[csours]

Which is called competition in the business world, and is generally allowed unless some specific law is broken.