I wish journalists would publish headlines like this and Kodak's recent adventure as "The company that currently has the rights to the name [Whatever Past Beloved Consumer Brand] is [Doing Whatever]"
"we cannot retrieve the item referred to in section #.#.#.# in the timeframe specified in section #.#.#.#, please follow previously agreed upon contingency plan #.#.#.#"?
I'm really glad that these folks are succeeding, they've been at it a really long time. They contacted us when I was on a non-profit board that ran an event a few years ago, and it was obvious that it was a great idea that we had no way of implementing. Now that everyone has a phone with them all the time, they're past that barrier.
Yep, agreed. I might think a little better of it if it were entirely open (or anything other than some weird idea someone had for a way to make a few dollars) but I still have trouble trying to come up with reasons why this might be a good idea.
It looks like they've got that covered: "If we, what3words ltd, are ever unable to maintain the what3words technology or make arrangements for it to be maintained by a third-party (with that third-party being willing to make this same commitment), then we will release our source code into the public domain. We will do this in such a way and with suitable licences and documentation to ensure that any and all users of what3words, whether they are individuals, businesses, charitable organisations, aid agencies, governments or anyone else can continue to rely on the what3words system." -- https://what3words.com/pricing/
When someone told about what3words, they also told me that they made money by selling shorter or more pleasant word pairings to whoever was willing to pay, but the only reference to that I could find is [0]. Having that requirement would make it much more difficult to build such a system.
Apart from that, it's basically "just" geohashes with a different (population-density based) encoding.
