On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 9:02 AM, Christopher Schmidt<[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 06:54:28PM -0600, Richard Greenwood wrote: >> I am confused with regard to the legal aspects of using Google maps in >> OL. Is this the license, or terms of service, that governs use of >> Google map layers in within OpenLayers: >> http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS or is there a different one? >> >> Under http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS It says: >> "5.3 You agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the >> Services by any means other than through the interface that is >> provided by Google..." >> So is Google referring to their server interface here, not their >> client JavaScript interface? And thus it is okay to use OL instead of >> the Google map API? >> >> Basically my questions is: From a legal perspective, is there any >> difference between consuming and displaying Google map layers in >> OpenLayers as opposed to doing the same in Google maps API? > > In short: No. > > Slightly longer answer: The statement in the ToS above is referring to > the Google Maps API, but OpenLayers does not violate it. We use the > Google Maps API javascript for positioning, etc. In this sense, > OpenLayers is playing no different of a role than, say, jQuery or any > other Javascript library that you might use in your application: It's > simply allowing you to wrap up some "other Javascript" code around > the Google Maps API, which is perfectly allowed. > > Using the Google Maps API, and using OpenLayers, present tiles in the > same way.
Sorry to keep this going, but I think it is an important issue - and very recently is something that has caused consternation for me when weighing an OL-with-Google-layers implementation. The Google Maps/Earth API ToS is more explicit than the general Google ToS, and IANAL but I read it the same way that Chris does - that OL acts as a javascript library that wraps the Maps API when it uses a Google layer. But one particular bit of the Earth/Maps ToS that confounds me is section 10.2: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/terms.html : "10. License Restrictions. ....Except as explicitly permitted in Section 7 or the Maps APIs Documentation, you must not (nor may you permit anyone else to): ... 10.2 copy, translate, modify, create a derivative work of, or publicly display any Content or any part thereof (for example, the following are prohibited: (a) creating server-side modification of map tiles; and (b) stitching multiple static map images together to display a map that is larger than permitted in the Maps APIs Documentation);" I haven't had a chance to really dig into into the OL.Layer.Google code, but I was under the impression that it uses the static maps API to stitch titles together (I think I'm just making that assumption because it loads the static maps API when I use it). If that is the case, the example in Section 10.2 seems eerily explicit. Should OL implementations that use Google layers limit themselves to a certain size? Or does that mean something else? _______________________________________________ Users mailing list [email protected] http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/users
