GIS API / shapefiles for startup (free or low cost)

Q1. I'm looking for suggestions on which GIS/Mapping API to use for a startup. The app will need geocoding, street level maps, location tagging, and displaying data on the map, but not much else. (I'm faily new to GIS, so I hope this makes sense.)

Google Maps API apparently charges $10,000 开发者_开发百科for first million (?) pageviews or something like that. Plus I'm concerned about other restrictive terms - such as google having access to my proprietary data.

Q2. Is there a truly free source (govt.?) for street-level USA shapefiles that are decent quality? Open street maps sounds like an open source solution, but it's under a GPL license, meaning my proprietary data would become public domain. (right?)

Thanks!

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Since you mentioned Google Maps, I'm thinking you are looking for web solutions? Check out Open Street Map, also GeoNames.

There are also lots of (open source) GIS resources at osgeo.org.

The government does provide some reference data. However, "government" doesn't automatically mean "public domain". As far as I know there's no central gis repository for the government; each agency collects and publishes data for different purposes. You can find some at Nasa, some at the Census Bureau, etc. Hunting it down is a chore. Google is your friend.

Also, when you say "restrictive", keep in mind that collecting accurate GIS data is extremely expensive and labor-intensive.

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A2: If you create a derivative work from your data and OSM data then IF you distribute it you have to do it under a GPL license. You can keep it all to yourself if you like, or use it internally in an organisation (possibly). Distribution is the thing the GPL really covers.

So suppose you have traffic incident data (which is yours) and you use OSM data (GPL) to create a web map with your incidents on top of a road map, your data doesn't become public domain. You're not distributing a new derived product.

But if you use your traffic incident data to create a new data set you can't put that on the internet with a license that restricts copying and distribution (because the OSM component 'infects' the whole data set).

As I understand it, I am not a lawyer etc. Although I did have a girlfriend doing a PhD in Law and I read some of her textbooks...

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Addressing the price of Google Maps - it is completely free if you use it on an publicly available web server. If you use it in a locked in solution, behind login or on your intranet or such, then you will have to pay. No idea about the sum though.