All this might be true for the US, but it sadly isnīt true for Germany (and probably the rest of Europe), at least not to its full extend. You can get maps from government institutions that show all roads, and these can be bundled to any software using them without further payment AFAIK. However, they are a bit more expensive than the US ones (about 2000DM/1000US$) and, what is far more annoying, they miss information on one way streets, type of road etc.

There seems to be very clear difference in Europe/US here. It seems that you can buy good quality street-level maps from the US area cheaply but the case really isn't same in Europe.

In Finland, for example, we have detailed maps available but for very expensive price. For a fully vectorized street-level map with all possible information (street name/number, one-way traffic, turning restrictions, road quality, etc) it can cost well over 5000USD.

Though, once GPS navigation gets more used in Europe, the situation has to change. But as far as I've understood, this might still take years. Of course there are also differences inside European countries what comes to map availability and price range, but overall the difference to US is huge.

And on the above I'm mostly talking about street-level maps, meaning that you can do automatic route planning based on the data, so it has to be accurate.

Kim