At yesterday’s MEGUG Round Table meeting in Waterville, the topic of Google Earth licensing was briefly discussed and legal notices from Google minimally probed. With the increased utilization of Google Earth there needs to be an increased understanding of what is permissible and what is not. In the simplest of terms, Google Earth, the free version is clearly limited to the individual for home/personal use and for business or government entities, limited to their internal use. If any use is considered as a professional or commercial, then Google Earth Pro is offered at the rate of $400 per year. After reviewing the professional version’s license and user forums where this distinction has been discussed, it appears that Google Earth Pro also has limitations. So here’s the question – is there an authoritative listing of permissible uses under each type of license from Google and, in so defining, what distinguishes individual use from professional use? If no such listing exists, shouldn’t this community ask Google to develop one? Sources examined thus far include: Citing from http://earth.google.com/enterprise/earth_pro.html Which Product is right for me? (License) Google Earth - Free version for home/personal use Google Earth Pro - Professional version for commercial use Citing from http://earth.google.com/intl/en/license.html Thank you for using Google Earth! By downloading, installing or using this software or any portion thereof ("Google Software") you agree to be bound by the following terms of service as well as the terms found on our Legal Notices page at http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/help/legalnotices_maps.html (together the “Terms of Service” http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS ). The Google Software, and any portion thereof, are referred to herein as the "Software." 1. USE OF SOFTWARE; RESTRICTIONS Use of Software. For an individual end user, the Software is made available to and may be used by you only for your personal, non- commercial use according to these Terms of Service and the Software documentation. For a business entity end user or government entity end user, the Software may be used by you and your employees for internal use according to these Terms of Service and the Software documentation (individual, business, and government end users are collectively referred to as "You" herein). Citing from http://www.google.com/accounts/tos/highlights/utos-us-en-h.html Terms of Service Highlights About your responsibilities Generally, our services are only for you personally to use. If you want to redistribute a service, copy it, sell it or such like you’ll have to get our express permission first. Citing from http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS Google Terms of Service 5. Use of the Services by you 5.5 Unless you have been specifically permitted to do so in a separate agreement with Google, you agree that you will not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade or resell the Services for any purpose. Citing from http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/help/terms_maps.html Google Maps/Earth Terms of Service By downloading, installing, or using the Google Earth software, accessing or using the Google Maps service (together, the "Products" or "Services"), or accessing or using any of the content available within the Products, you agree to be bound by the following: (1) the Google Terms of Service (the "Universal Terms"); (2) the terms found on our Legal Notices page (the "Legal Notices"); and (3) the additional terms and conditions set forth below (the "Additional Terms"). Before you continue, you should read each of these three documents, as together they form a binding agreement between you and Google regarding your use of the Products. Collectively, the Universal Terms, the Legal Notices, and the Additional Terms are referred to as the "Terms". 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; Citing from http://groups.google.com/group/earth-pro/browse_thread/thread/542aebd86d624c03/4660b7828a4b0b3b?lnk=gst&q=#4660b7828a4b0b3b This forum discussion calls into question what is actually permitted with GE Pro; see: http://earth.google.com/intl/en-US/licensepro.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list (GEOLIBRARY-L) is an unmoderated discussion list for all Maine GIS Users. 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