Latest guidance to me from the Ordnance Survey's MSA Helpdesk (the people who licence OS mapping to Local Authorities in the UK) strongly suggests that:
1) All points you create using the Google Maps API and TeleAtlas maps that are located in the UK are most probably considered derived data and so belong to the Ordnance Survey (and are covered by Crown Copyright). This contradicts advice I recieved from OS a few years ago, which said we only needed to comply with Google and TeleAtlas terms to use points traced from these maps. 2) The cheapest licence from the Ordnance Survey to allow you to create and display such points using the Google Maps API is £5,000 per year. This is the minimum fee: the actual fee may be higher as it is based on the number of map "transactions", whatever they might be. It is not yet clear whether the licence is per site, or per organisation, or per something else. So it would appear that: a) Everyone who is using the TeleAtlas Google Maps to define points located in the UK is most likely breaking OS licensing rules and Crown Copyright. b) Use of the Google Maps API is thus severely restricted in the UK, without paying at least £5,000 per year. While this would appear to be the strict legal situation, I would be surprised if the OS suddenly decided to take every single user of the API to court. Especially since the government has said it will review the sharing of map data, and the OS's business model, in the budget next year. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
