Wow, this one seems like another step on the slippery slope of over-legislation. From the state that doesn't want you to pump your own gas comes the new idea to protect you; no programming your GPS while driving. While I admit, digging through a Point of Interest menu for something that is buried deep down there is a foolish thing to do, I can't argue that a 100% hands off approach is the right way to go either.
The bill is proposing a $100 fine for anyone caught manually programming a GPS while driving. This follows on the heels of the texting and non-hands free cell phone ban that carries the same fine.
What's next? Anything goes that can slip past the legislature, one can imagine. I would like to see the No Mascara or Eye Shadow application ban go ahead of the GPS programming ban - maybe fewer of those on the road, but have you ever ridden behind someone doing that? Scary.
Whoops; go to a trade show and get arrested or software piracy by the German officials? Ouch. iGo used to power the Mio line of units, and still powers a lot of second tier GPS brands with an operating system that I think is reasonably good compared to a lot of others out there.
Who knows where this went off the tracks, but it seems to me that the folks in the booth probably didn't know that they were showing off pirated software from the company a few booths away.
Press Release Below......
German authorities take action over pirated iGO My way software at three different booths at CeBIT 2009. The regional prosecutor's office issued an order for regulatory measures after representatives from IPR Consulting reported the fraud and submitted evidence to the authorities.
Representatives from IPR Consulting carried out targeted monitoring at CeBIT 2009 in Hanover, as risk analyses had indicated that several companies would be offering pirated software.
German authorities took action over pirated iGO My way navigation software in three cases at this year's CeBIT exhibition. Only a few meters away from the booth of NNG Global Services, a company of Chinese origin was promoting itself as well as its products as iGO My way, which later proved to be cracked software copies. The Chinese citizens, upon the customers' request, pulled the cracked iGO My way software out of their pockets. "The vendors will have to take responsibility not only for selling pirated software, but also for infringement of NNG Global Services trademarks," explains András Fazakas, Chief Operating Officer at NNG Global Services.
In two other booths, the vendors were speaking very convincingly about their strong relationships with NNG Global Services. They were found to be using pirated iGO My way navigation software on their navigation devices. One company quoted a special price for the software - which, they claimed, was the result of an agreement with NNG Global Services. In both cases the Hungarian software development company, however, has never heard of the companies in question.
The above actions are part of a series of raids conducted internationally by a trademark protection company, commissioned by NNG Global Services to curb illegal software use.
It seems that in Georgia a thief used a forklift to steal an ATM, and when bank officials informed the Police that the GPS tracking device was turned on, and working, the tracking device led them to a pick-up truck driving down I-85. The pick-up wouldn't pull over, and eventually took one corner too quickly, resulting in the heavy ATM shifting in the bed of the truck, and the truck turning over. The driver was not hurt and taken into custody.
By now, most GPS units have a "Home" button, which you can set to quickly navigate to your house from where ever you are. It's a nice innovation that can make life very easy. It can apparently also snag a thief.
In Amityville NY, police stopped a man on a bike and questioned him about the several items he was carrying, including a GPS. After giving evasive answers, the police checked the GPS and the address that was filed under the "Home" button. The man on the bike didn't live there, but the man at the "Home" address indicated that the GPS was his.... busted.
Apparently after trying to kidnap his girlfriend this gentleman fled the scene with his mobile phone. Police got his mobile phone number from his girlfriend, the alleged victim, and tracked the man to a tree where he has climbed up into the branches and hid. Took an hour to talk him down, and police arrested him.
This chapter of the same book takes place in North Carolina where a geocache was attached to a Starbucks sign. The cache was being hidden at the time when some "Muggles" came by and noticed the activity, got nervous and called the police. After the police learned that there were no explosives, they logged into Geocaching.com and recorded their visit...... well maybe they did everything right up until that last part.
This time it’s in New Hampshire. Apparently a tiny Altoids box, affixed magnetically to the underside of an electrical box outside a Shaw’s supermarket sparked some concern and Police at looking to talk to the owner of the cache. The cache was put on private property, which is not recommended by Geocaching in their guidelines without the permission of the property owner: by placing a Geocache “you have adequate permission to hide your cache in the selected location.” As more people get into Geocaching, and more people get uptight about finding bomb-like mysterious boxes in strange places (maybe rightfully so), we’ll continue to see this kind of stuff. Geocaching goes on to say that another stipulation is: “Caches near or under public structures deemed potential or possible targets for terrorist attacks. These include but are not limited to highway bridges, dams, government buildings, elementary and secondary schools, and airports.”
Recently in Boston, the whole city was nearly paralyzed after some light boards, which were part of a gorilla marketing campaign for Turner Broadcasting, were thought to be bombs. After several were found around the city, the bomb squad had their hands full, and traffic was snarled for hours. Apparently after 9/11, a law was passed essentially saying that you can’t cause panic associated with placing something like this if its interpreted as a dangerous item…sounds like Geocaches are in a similar position. Put in the wrong place, and interpreted as dangerous by a reasonable person (i.e. the bomb squad and a judge), you’d be in trouble.
In what appears to be another “GPS as a witness” missteps, an employee in Wisconsin recently vandalized his boss’ house by allegedly pouring a bucket of tar on his front porch before quickly driving away, apparently undetected. Unfortunately for him, the van he was driving was a company van that was equipped with a GPS transponder, just like the rest of the company vehicles. The GPS information led the police to the arrest.
Whoops - three were arrested in NY when the GPS units that they allegedly stole notified police of their whereabouts. Apparently the GPS units were part of the DPW plan to track and monitor Snow Plows and other municipal vehicles in the area, and looked like mobile phones. When the town reached out to their GPS units, they found them and when the police arrived, they said that 46-year-old Kurt Husfeldt was holding the device. His 13 year old son and another man were also arrested.
Seems like this is going to become more common as GPS tracking devices become more popular; apparently yesterday yet another GPS tracking device was mistaken for a bomb and the bomb squad came out to defuse the situation, only to confirm that the unit was a GPS tracking device. The Private Investigator had already come forward and said that he was tracking the person who owned the truck it was attached to. We’ve seen this tracking device bomb scare thing before, when a man was tracking his wife, as well as a Geocache being mistaken for a bomb too.
So, the folks in the GPS world just can't get a break. Recently, a Geocache caused a bit of a scare because people weren't quite sure what was attached to some sculpture outside a bank in Sherman Texas; it was the cache in a magnetic box. Now, a man tracking his wife with a gps tracking device attached to the underside of her car caused a bomb scare when officials thought that the black box was suspicious and called in the bomb squad. Apparently the unhappy couple are going through a divorce.
A lot of people with handheld GPS units have at least heard about Geocaching, and many have participated in the hide and seek game of finding hidden treasures via latitude and longitudinal coordinates. Well, one geocaching event recently went bad. Some Geocachers were searching out the Cache, "Don't be a Horses..." and apparently some of the local citizen's were concerned that the cache was a bomb. Apparently, the cache is located outside a bank, and after the police, the bomb squad, and the FBI got involved things were finally resolved.
NJ Bill Would Ban GPS Programming While Driving
This time it’s in New Hampshire. Apparently a tiny Altoids box, affixed magnetically to the underside of an electrical box outside a Shaw’s supermarket sparked some concern and Police at looking to talk to the owner of the cache. The cache was put on private property, which is not recommended by Geocaching in their 
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