Quote Originally Posted by Larrison View Post
But, its really economics that limit how often the images are updated on the free internet data bases. The satellites (or aerial photography on the same scale) are very expensive, so the companies look for a commercial dollar revenue generating user of the pictures for a while before they release them to the public on the internet.
I have purchased some limited use rights (high res photos) for various mapping projects and I can confirm this is VERY EXPENSIVE. I was going to weigh on some of the economics, but your post is very complete and stands alone -- so thanks!

Mark