Right now there os only a very limited amount of free geodata available. The US is a positive example, but in Europe most of the data to generate
There is far more free geographical data in existence than you might guess. For example, in the US most local municipalities create their own
There is more to the world than just the US. The states are pretty much covered with USGS, USDA, NPS, Tiger line data etc. It's the rest of the planet that proves more difficult.
I agree about spending money to locate free data, or raise awareness for the issue. Universities for example should register any data they provide in a _central_ clearinghouse, making it available for automated access. And of course provide it in a homogeneous format.