SINGAPORE: Virtual Map said it will continue to run its website street directory.com sometime this week despite losing its case against the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) over copyright infringement recently.

But it did not give details how it will do so without running afoul again.

Meanwhile, the website's legal woes have been a boon for others who provide online maps.

For 25-year-old Douglas Gan and his business partner, running an online map business just got better.

Operating from home, they said their venture is seeing benefits due to street directory.com's legal problems.

Mr Gan, CEO & Founder of www.shownearby.com, said: "Their shut down has actually increased our traffic by about 500% everyday. So, just this month alone, we launched the site on 1 April and for this month we have about 7,000 over absolute unique visitors already."

Mr Gan and his business partner have spent about S$30,000 on their entire business so far.

They are hoping to generate revenue from business listings - basically companies that want to be featured prominently on the search engine aspect of their site.

The entrepreneurs are using Google maps without any copyright infringement and it's free. Google allows anyone to make use of their maps for free as long as they are not used directly to make money and instead used to enrich an online business.

Derek Callow, Marketing Manager of Google, said: "The relationships and the contracts we've got with our maps providers allow us to in turn make those maps and the Google Maps API available for individuals, businesses and associations to embed those maps into their website and the net result is actually making the internet experience so much better."

Other companies like V3 Teletech which powers websites like www.can.com.sg and uses maps from SLA, said their business has also gone up by about five per cent in the last six months.

Meanwhile, Virtual Map has said it will not refund companies which it fined for unauthorised use of its maps although Virtual Map itself was found to have infringed copyright law.

But those fined may have some recourse.

Philip Wong, Head of Civil & Commercial Litigation, Harry Elias Partnership, said: "These companies may argue that when it entered into a settlement with Virtual Map, it did not know that in fact Virtual Map did not own the copyright to these maps.

"So on that basis, they can argue that the settlement was entered into by a common mistake or a unilateral mistake and on that basis they might consider going after Virtual Map to recover the fines they've paid."

Virtual Map said it will take its case against SLA to the Court of Appeal on 10 April. - CNA/vm