Thanks for posting this. Maybe I'm just grumpy from trying and mostly failing to get some GIS data for the small business I work for, but when I read between the lines of this statement I read either "we have to pay a lot to license this data, and those costs are based on usage rather than a flat fee," or failing that at least "it's expensive to own and operate a fleet of Street View cars to collect this data, and besides that you're not going to find this quality of data cheaper anywhere else [for now, at least]."

I seem to recall that I'd see TeleAtlas and/or NAVTEQ copyrights on maps.google.com for the US. Now I mostly see "(C) Google." (But also "Sanborn," whom I haven't heard of, when I zoom in; http://www.sanborn.com/.)

I welcome OSM shaking this market up. I believe that the losses OSM may inflict upon the existing map data providers will be made up for several times over by all the interesting applications that will arise from its availability.