> In Europe the state owned mapping organisations do the mapping and claim full copyright on the maps & data.
This is true here in Switzerland. You have to pay quite a bit for our maps. I think it's a good thing actually, because their quality is worth the price. They provide extreme detail even in very remote locations (well, remote for us at least ;)). And for doing quick lookups, there's a free online-map at http://map.geo.admin.ch/, which also provides a lot of statistical data.
Yep. OSM was set up by some people from the UK and the OS knows the location of everything that's more than about 20cm big and nailed down (from planning applications & surveying), so they have lots of high quality data.
However most people/businesses don't need that.
Just look at Google maps & OpenStreetMap. They don't have submetre accuracy, however there are still quite useful to people and businesses.
This is true here in Switzerland. You have to pay quite a bit for our maps. I think it's a good thing actually, because their quality is worth the price. They provide extreme detail even in very remote locations (well, remote for us at least ;)). And for doing quick lookups, there's a free online-map at http://map.geo.admin.ch/, which also provides a lot of statistical data.