Thanks Davie and Rossko for your replies. Rossko makes a good point: The fact that you are using Google's tools for determining the data could mean that they own the data even though a user placed the marker on the map.
Whether they own that or not, the question then is whether and how they allow you to use it. Davie is of course right in that we are talking about two numbers, and it is very difficult to claim ownership of numbers, although it could be easy for Google to prove (in my case, for example) that I am using their technology to obtain those numbers. Worst case scenario for me is: I run a site and Google tries to shut down my use of their technology for breach of their terms of service. This would be quite difficult, because all requests are coming from users' web browsers all over the internet, so they would have to get some legal injunction to stop me storing their geocode results. You may find the following interesting though: Since posting the original question here, I also posted the question on a different forum, after finding some other interesting information. I will just quote myself here: *I have seen some conflicting information on this. According to the Google > Maps terms of service, my understanding is that this would violate the ToS > agreement. > > On the other hand, according to this answer: > > http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=42dbb1b2b5dbc6ad&hl=en&fid=42dbb1b2b5dbc6ad00048fe6980e7b61&hltp=2 > > In the FAQs received by this person from Google, it says: "Bulk geocoding > and caching is allowed, with the understanding that the geocodes are for > use with a Google Map at some time." > > In my case, the points will be displayed again on a Google Map, so > according to the last piece of information, I should be allowed to use the > data this way in my application.* > This post is at http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=26fa68e392fa50a0&hl=en and I received some interesting feedback there as well. I wish we could get a clear answer from Google on this. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps JavaScript API v3" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-maps-js-api-v3/-/hlaORetz-fcJ. 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-js-api-v3?hl=en.
