# The British Airways position on various border disputes

DevFeed: [The British Airways position on various border disputes](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-british-airways-position-on-various-border-disputes-20790.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://drewdevault.com/blog/BA-on-border-disputes/>)

Author: May 5

Published: 2025-05-05T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Drew DeVault](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/drew-devault.md>)

Topics: [Flight](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/flight.md>), [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>), [Software](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software.md>), [ui](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ui.md>), [real-time](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/real-time.md>), [webcam](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/webcam.md>)

Tags: [3d](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/3d.md>), [camera](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/camera.md>), [developer](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developer.md>), [devices](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/devices.md>), [display](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/display.md>), [interface](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/interface.md>), [japan](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/japan.md>), [london](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/london.md>), [map](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/map.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>), [photography](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/photography.md>), [real-time](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/real-time.md>), [screen](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/screen.md>), [smartphone](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/smartphone.md>), [software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software.md>), [united-kingdom](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/united-kingdom.md>), [zoom](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/zoom.md>)

## AI overview

The article examines the interactive flight map in a British Airways in-seat entertainment system, focusing on its map views, interface, OpenStreetMap attribution, and the absence of visible open-source license information. It humorously speculates that the map's border depictions may reflect British Airways' positions on international disputes.

## Source excerpt

My spouse and I are on vacation in Japan, spending half our time seeing the sights and the other half working remotely and enjoying the experience of living in a different place for a while. To get here, we flew on British Airways from London to Tokyo, and I entertained myself on the long flight by browsing the interactive flight map on the back of my neighbor's seat and trying to figure out how the poor developer who implemented this map solved the thorny problems that displaying a world map implies. I began my survey by poking through the whole interface of this little in-seat entertainment system1 to see if I can find out anything about who made it or how it works - I was particularly curious to find a screen listing open source licenses that such such devices often disclose. To my dismay I found nothing at all - no information about who made it or what's inside. I imagine that there must be some open source software in that thing, but I didn't find any licenses or copyright statements. When I turned my attention to the map itself, I did find one copyright statement, the only one I could find in the whole UI. If you zoom in enough, it switches from a satellite view to a street view showing the OpenStreetMap copyright line: Note that all of the pictures in this article were taken by pointing my smartphone camera at the screen from an awkward angle and fine-tune your expectations accordingly. I don't have pictures to support every border claim documented in this article, but I did take notes during the flight. Given that British Airways is the proud flag carrier of the United Kingdom I assume that this is indeed the only off-the-shelf copyrighted material included in this display, and everything else was developed in-house without relying on any open source software that might require a disclosure of license and copyright details. For similar reasons I am going to assume that all of the borders shown in this map are reflective of the official opinion of British Air