$99 personal plans, page-36

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_imagery

{GeoEye[edit]

GeoEye's GeoEye-1 satellite was launched September 6, 2008.[6] The GeoEye-1 satellite has the highest resolution of any commercial imaging system and is able to collect images with a ground resolution of 0.41 meters (16 inches) in the panchromatic or black and white mode. It collects multispectral or color imagery at 1.65-meter resolution or about 64 inches, a factor of two better than existing commercial satellites with four-band multistage imaging capabilities. While the satellite is able to collect imagery at 0.41 meters, GeoEye's operating license from the U.S. Government requires re-sampling the imagery to 0.5 meters for all customers not explicitly granted a waiver by the U.S. Government[7]}


In comparison to this 'best' satellite imagery resolution, nearmaps resolution, as reported a couple of years ago was usually 7.5cm but could shoot to 2cm. Not sure what they are doing now but I can easily see my power and telephone and optus cable lines going to my house from the street, to achieve this, the res must be around 2cm.

The reason the US govt requires a 0.5m res limit would be most likely that the satellite is photographing classified or restricted military installations a long way out of town.

I did notice that in the Santa Barbara shoot, one building was deliberately obscured or dithered/blurred so that you could not see what it was. Probably as a result of a request by the law enforcement or military or govt.