Wiping Someplace Off the Face of the Map

Before today, I'd never heard of North Oaks, Minnesota. It's a town of 4500 people, but good luck finding it on Google Maps. As Anita Ramasastry explains at Findlaw's Writ, it's been wiped away:

Previously, through Google’s 'Street View' application, anyone could see photos of the homes in North Oaks, which had been photographed by Google photographers from the nearest road. 'Street View' offers the same kinds of photos with respect to numerous American cities. But North Oaks is unusual: It is a 'private' city, with roads owned entirely by residents. (Each homeowner owns part of the land where the street is located, and grants each other resident an easement of right of way to travel on his or her property.) Thus, although North Oaks is not a gated community, visitors are greeted by a 'No Trespassing' sign that is meant to serve as a gate.

Accordingly, North Oaks’s City Council informed Google in January that Google’s camera crews had trespassed when they photographed its residents’ homes. The Council asked Google to either remove the images, or risk being cited for violating the city's anti-trespassing ordinance. Google removed the images, which now cannot be seen.

There are, it seems to me, some interesting issues with a whole town being private property. Ultimately, they don't bother Google all that much, however:

While the Street View images are gone, one can still view the homes of North Oaks on the Internet. Satellite images of the city are still visible on Google Maps, Google Earth and Microsoft and Yahoo mapping applications. These photos are taken from space and since space is deemed “public,” the same privacy rights do not apply.

The march of technology!