Originally Posted by IO540
Then again, drawing a parallel with streetmaps: when I compare the "free" OpenStreetMap with commercial maps widely available on the internet, I find the free data generally more elaborate and more up to date
Probably because they ripped it off high quality (...) commercial products.
That's a grave accusation. On what factual information is it based? If you have none, it comes close to slander.
I know for a fact that at least SOME of the OSM data is hand-crofted, actually I contributed to several mapping parties to help build up data for my country - which is regrettably incomplete, at street level.
And the project certainly makes every effort to remain on the legal side, and to discourage ripping wherever they can.