Comment Re:Copyright Trap, perhaps? (Score 2) 182
Phantom islands aren't really anything new in themselves, but they usuallly date from before satellite imagery: a ship would spot what looked like an island in the distance, nobody on board would bother to go and confirm the existence of terra firma, the island would be named and reported to cartographers later on, and it would keep turning up on charts until someone tried and failed to find it. Some of the better stories that grew up around these islands are in this book: http://www.librarything.com/work/20956/