Historical Aerials - New Policies

Started by edwaleni, January 12, 2025, 10:31:24 PM

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edwaleni

For those of you who have utilized Historical Aerials to casually browse at old roads or bridges should be made aware of a policy change for the site.

The policy change is you cannot casually browse imagery unless you turn off all ad blockers at the browser and firewall.

OR

You pay the monthly subscription.

As an "on demand" user of Historical Aerials (and I have paid them for every image I use) I find this troublesome, but understand that the hosting and bandwidth charges to maintain so much imagery is not free and costs money to support.

What I do find an irritant, is that the US taxpayers paid for all this imagery to be taken via the USDA. So really until Google and other sat imaging started producing online imagery after 2004, these aerials only have value (to me) for artifacts prior to 1995. Yes, Google collects metadata on our searches, I am not blind to that fact, but enforcing an ad structure or subscription "before" you can see what they can provide is what makes it troublesome.

Welcome to any feedback on this.


Max Rockatansky

#1
If you are after Topo maps only, there is a far better option that doesn't have "copyright" pasted all over it:

https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#4/39.98/-100.06

And I disagree with the practice of paying Historic Aerials for anything they don't own.  Yes, they designed a nice piece of viewing software, but they don't own the maps they are claiming copyright on.  This is a controversy they could avoid by moving to being a subscription only viewing service.  I'm to understand this is a sore point of contention with the site owner who wants open web surfing traffic. 

Alternatively the site could move to a fully ad revenue model and remove the copyright overlay.  Sounds like the site owner wants their cake and to eat it too by stopping viewership to people with ad blockers.

Mr. Matté

My ad blocker has a "block element" function so I just zap the ad block block box and the invisible box that blocks clicking/scrolling.

jeffandnicole

Being I don't have any ad blocking software, nothing has changed for me.

Quote from: edwaleni on January 12, 2025, 10:31:24 PMWhat I do find an irritant, is that the US taxpayers paid for all this imagery to be taken via the USDA. So really until Google and other sat imaging started producing online imagery after 2004, these aerials only have value (to me) for artifacts prior to 1995. Yes, Google collects metadata on our searches, I am not blind to that fact, but enforcing an ad structure or subscription "before" you can see what they can provide is what makes it troublesome.

www.historicaerials.com isn't a government site though.  They purchased the rights to the photos, and as such can sell advertising or subscriptions for people to visit their company's website.  They don't have to give access to them for free.

Aerial photos area still free via actual government sites.  But they are generally nowhere nearly as comprehensive or easy to find, if you can locate them at all. You can always file open public record requests from the proper government agency to view the aerials.  If you want to spend the time digging into federal or state websites and databases, you can probably find what you want.



vdeane

This has basically blocked NYSDOT from accessing the site.  IT has a firewall/proxy on all traffic to block things like malware and it trips the Historic Aerials anti-adblock code, so no devices within the network can access the viewer (although AdBlock Plus it able to clear the message and thing blocking interacting with the map, I can't get the scrollbar to reappear).  HA basically said that we should get a subscription, and any attempts to point out that no other sites have an issue (and thus the issue is with them) fell on deaf ears.

Fortunately, Vivaldi's adblocker doesn't trip it last I looked, as it lacks a block element feature.

Honestly, the USGS Earth Explorer site has better imagery (search in Aerial Photos Single Frames); it's a bit more work for it, but it has many years that HA doesn't have, no watermark, and it doesn't demand that everyone let malvertizing through free and clear or pay a subscription.  I recently restored my account there for other reasons, so I might just use that from now on.  I'm not exactly happy with HA right now.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.



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