Thanks Pamela, In the words of Fred Flintstone, a man who powered is own vehicle but who under the current ToS would still have to carry his own sensors, probably some kind of dinosaur based technology, Yabba-Dabba Do! You've made my day.
We do not intend to impart any guidance to objects (sensors) being tracked, or manage fleets, the sensors are not vehicles, they have no means of propelling and/or guiding themselves and as far as i know the collective noun for geographically deployed networks of sensors is a 'sensor network' not a 'fleet'. I like your suggestion to use a wrapper API like Mapstraction, that we know how to do, and i hadn't even thought about it until now. As i probably spouted earlier, we still have some UI and browser support issues with OpenLayers (they are rapidly being fixed though) that make things trickier which currently cause us to favour Google Maps API. > Note: I am not a lawyer and cannot give official legal approval for anything. Nor me, or as far as i'm aware are others who kindly responded. Thanks all. We have our own legal eagles and they would not delegate interpretation and decisions on such things to mere non-legal mortals like me, hence my reluctance to accept the interpretation of some earlier responses. This is as official a response as I wanted and i'll await arrival of the revised ToS (ToU)! Thanks, Simon On Oct 10, 3:49 pm, "pamela (Google Employee)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi developers- > > As always, apologies for the ambiguity in the current ToS/FAQ. We are > still working on a new FAQ to reflect the new contract. It will likely > include a clarification to the vehicle tracking section that says that > tracking is fine as long as the map is not used for actually guiding > the objects that are tracked (i.e. fleet management). > > The revised ToS is not yet public, so this wording is still subject to > change. Please use your best judgment and check back when the new ToS > is public. You may want to use a wrapper API like Mapstraction or > OpenLayers to let you switch between providers if needed. > > Note: I am not a lawyer and cannot give official legal approval for anything. > > - pamela > > On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 11:41 PM, Simon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Thanks Andrew, > > > It definitely a fine line! I'm clear on the biological (living) vs > > mechanical (non-living) distinction. It's any combination of the two > > and where the sensor is mounted (not connected but touching, resting, > > being stored, whatever...) on/in the combined moving object, where we > > could compromise if we knew some official set of constraints. We don't > > know of many bicycles that cycle themselves - cars, planes, drones, > > helicopters, trains - yes - but we do know of projects that use > > bicycle mounted storage to hold sensors - such projects frequently > > showcase results through clients developed with the *free* Google Maps > > API in realtime and allow 2 way, i.e. controlling, communication. Are > > all these in violation of the TOU?, i'm guessing they are. We are also > > aware of Google Maps Premier - financially we have to exclude this > > option. > > > We're getting closer to an unambiguous answer on the constraint > > boundaries for biological-mechanical combinations, whats your take on > > these; > > > A passenger carrying a sensor whilst on/in a *mechanical* or *non- > > living* vehicle, be that a car, bike...? > > > And what's your opinion on William's response; > > > On Oct 10, 1:03 pm, William <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>... > >> The proposed application has nothing to do with the vehicle itself -- > >> it's all about the environment surrounding the vehicle -- therefore > >> the display of this real time environmental data is within the TOU. > >> All this data could be collected from a huge network of stationary > >> sensors like weather stations but that's not cost-effective. > > > I'm all for [Maps API Guru]'s lending sanctioned expertise, and it's > > another useful point of view. I've noted your clear view of the world > > and will keep watching the discussion for an official response, may > > never arrive! such things i guess are reserved for 'Premier' API > > users. > > > Thanks --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps API" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
