Wednesday 27 May 2009

Google Maps and Copyright

I have been watching a listserve and a conversation about the use of Google Maps and copyright came up. I read and sort of past it off. though I have been thinking about my project a little more and google maps is going to be a part of it.
Does anyone out there know what the Copyright regs are that apply to googlemaps? Is it legal to put a copy of a map on their websites. Could it be an image or does it have to be a link? Does the information of where the map came from have to remain if it is an image (I'm assuming so).

Thanks
Another person brought up the fact that copyright does not apply if it is in an assesment.
Earlier discussion still applies I believe. From the Act 1994

Things done for purposes of examination Copyright is not infringed by anything done for the purposes of an examination, whether by way of setting the questions, communicating the questions to the candidates, or answering the questions.

This suggests to me that students don't need to do anything since Copyright Infringement can't happen when doing an assessment. ie answering the questions.

What do others think?
The reply
I realise that for exam purposes it can be used, but some of these kids are building real sites for real people.
Cheers
The last post probably provided the most useful information
Google maps have a Terms of Use section (very bottom right of their maps). Lots of gobbledegook, but it's worth the students reading it. There's also a section (once you go into the Terms of use bit) about permissions etc.
This is the stuff that I will need to point the students to, they will have to include as part of there key factors information about copyright, this is also a point that they will have to make about the content of the books that they will be using to populate the website.

Terms and conditions of the google maps are here.
2. Restrictions on Use. Unless you have received prior written authorization from Google (or, as applicable, from the provider of particular Content), you must not:
(a) access or use the Products or any Content through any technology or means other than those provided in the Products, or through other explicitly authorized means Google may designate (such as through the Google Maps/Google Earth APIs);
(b) copy, translate, modify, or make derivative works of the Content or any part thereof;
(c) redistribute, sublicense, rent, publish, sell, assign, lease, market, transfer, or otherwise make the Products or Content available to third parties;
(d) reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of the Service or any part thereof, unless this is expressly permitted or required by applicable law;
(e) use the Products in a manner that gives you or any other person access to mass downloads or bulk feeds of any Content, including but not limited to numerical latitude or longitude coordinates, imagery, and visible map data;
(f) delete, obscure, or in any manner alter any warning, notice (including but not limited to any copyright or other proprietary rights notice), or link that appears in the Products or the Content; or
(g) use the Service or Content with any products, systems, or applications for or in connection with (i) real time navigation or route guidance, including but not limited to turn-by-turn route guidance that is synchronized to the position of a user's sensor-enabled device; or (ii) any systems or functions for automatic or autonomous control of vehicle behavior

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