How have the Mission Planner Developers managed to get around the Restrictions laid down by Google Earth regarding the use of Google Earth/Maps imagery and geo data for the Mission Planner software?
It appears that the use of any bulk downloaded , offline stored tiles, tiles stitched together, etc is illegal?
It also appears that the use of these maps to provide navigation and guidance for any autonomous vehicle is illegal.
It also appears the use of cached maps data is illegal other than 'to improve the user experience while having not internet connection' but for short term only. Storing cached maps for more than 30 days is also illegal.
It seems they have done everything to make it illegal and impossible to use the content in our type of applications!
Has Google provided special dispensation to permit its use by Mission Planner , and this community, for this Open Source application?
I have dug deep on the DIY-d forums and have not been able to find any guidance on this issue. I am not sure if Google would litigate in these issues, but they have the might to pull it off....
Some excerpts from from Google terms and conditions:
http://www.google.com/help/terms_maps.html
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) copy, translate, modify, or make derivative works of the Content or any part thereof; (b) redistribute, sublicense, rent, publish, sell, assign, lease, market, transfer, or otherwise make the Products or Content available to third parties; (c) 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; (d) 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; (e) delete, obscure, or in any manner alter any warning or link that appears in the Products or the Content; or (f) 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; (g) use the Products to create a database of places or other local listings information.
AND:
https://developers.google.com/maps/terms
(c) No Navigation, Autonomous Vehicle Control, or Enterprise Applications. You must not use the Service or Content with any products, systems, or applications for or in connection with any of the following:
(ii) any systems or functions for automatic or autonomous control of vehicle behavior; or
(iii) enterprise dispatch, fleet management, business asset tracking or similar applications. If you want to engage in enterprise dispatch, fleet management, business asset tracking, or similar applications, please contact the Google Maps API for Business sales team to obtain a Google enterprise license. (If you are offering a non-enterprise implementation, you may use the Google Maps API(s) to track assets such as cars, buses or other vehicles, as long as your tracking application is made available to the public without charge. For example, you may offer a free, public Maps API Implementation that displays real-time public transit or other transportation status information.)
Can anyone throw some light on this please? How are the MP users protected, if at all?
The Nampilot..
Comments
@Gisela & Joe Noci
I use Bing Satellite Map :) Google Maps is nothing but clouds over my primary flying site!
@Thomas Robinson
I agree with Gisella & Joe Noci, it's an important question to ask, and one that any responsible UAS/UAV (drone) operator should ask themselves. That said I believe the general consensus is correct in the interpretation of the intent of the restrictions. Google means to indemnify themselves from responsibility for the users actions. That however doesn't change the fact that if you accept that our vehicles are using Google maps as a means of guidance, then we are then breaking the terms of use.
@mP1
Interesting observation on "Humans in the Loop" however I'm not sure I buy that scenario as a distinction that would relieve the user from the restrictions put forth in Google's terms of use.....maybe.....maybe not. It might be good enough to argue, but I don't know.......something good to think about though :)
Regards,
Nathaniel ~KD2DEY
In the UK , I prefer Bing. Until recently, Google was 6 years out of date in my area. Does Bing have the same restrictions.
In any case, is an autonomous APM controlled aircraft using Google, Bing or any maps?. It is navigating around waypoints with LAT , Long and height.
I create / modify missions every week. If the maps are cached at that time , they never reach 30 days old.
I forgot to say google is basically saying in those TOC, you cant take our maps and make a GPS device that people can use in cars. Thats what the TOC is all about.
In legal speak almost everything is about definitions of terms that are used in said writings.
So what is a vehicle ?
The snippets shown to us( i havent read the full toc), includes the following key words: vehicles, navigation and route guidance. I have never heard a plane or multicopter being called a vehicle. The standard and reasonable definition of vehicle means cars with four wheels that people can drive or be a passanger in. Motor registries, drivers licenses and so on use the word vehicle because it means car, bus, truck and so on.
Route guidance for...
When you read the highlighted portions back replacing or think car, it makes sense. Google has been known to be sponsoring autonomous cars. The words navigation & route finding mean cars driving down roads. The fact it includes terms directly related to car driving with a license "turn by turn" shows this without any doubt. Google Maps cannot offer route guidance to me flying my machines because it only knows how to follow rouds
Autonomy
Anyway the maps in MP are always viewed by humans who then make the decision in plotting waypoints and so on. MP never looks at maps to plot anything itself. The fact a human is in the middle makes this a very different application of the map. No where does it say a person cant look at the map to fly a remote control. The text is always linking autonomy directly to the maps or other data.
Phones and maps
People use their phone and gmaps every day to drive their cars to wherever they wish to go. The fact a human is in the loop makes all the difference, in much the same way a human looking a pics and then doing stuff in MP is also very different. If its wrong to show maps for view in MP, then its also wrong to show maps on phones.
Im not a lawyer, but MP has not done anything remotely wrong.
@All,
Given the high visibility of the APM project and the DIY Drones website I hardly think that Google could have missed our use of Google Maps and would have leaned on us by now. Also, I am sure that there are members who are Google employees and they most certainly would have propagated our use of Google Maps up the chain of command by now to elicit some kind of response.
Eventually open source low level pictures of all of the world will become available due to hobby autonomous aircraft flights which could make Google Maps just another competitor in the aerial map supply business.
TCIII Admin
My guess is they are curious/concerned about a potential legal issue. Doesn't seem like an unreasonable discussion.
G&J, I would be interested to see the list of companies selling APMs build into "professional" UAV's if you wouldn't mind PMing me. Thanks. Just curious.
Well, the last postings on this and related subjects were many moons ago and people could be forgiven their possible belief that the problem had 'gone away'. However, the google terms and conditions still are quite clear and adamant so I wanted to know ( since it is impossible to search for such comments on the forums) weather concessions had maybe been made by google specifically for the open source ( DIYd) community. Your question seems very loaded....DIYd advertises how many thousands of users there are of the MP - I wonder how many do not use google maps? There are daily posts of people using this system for income - photogrammetry, agriculture surveys, search and rescue, etc. I have not anywhere found any 'warning' to the user, new or not, that to do this is illegal...
A fair question do you not think?
Gisela & Joe Noci, Can you please advise what you're hoping to achieve with this post? I'm interested to know why you're raising the questions you have asked.
Gary, you are lucky then! Try finding anything us poor folk here in Namibia!
Maybe Windhoek is ok...
Interesting when some technologies race ahead and others, including the legal side, lag ferociously behind!
Ah Joe we have just had a major infrastructure project built by the government here and OSM is better than Google around here!
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