I spoke to Christian Halsted about this, who is very likely state government's most senior Google Earth expert. DEP researched the legality of Google Earth before committing to it, and they contacted a senior Google executive who oversaw the Google Earth product. According to that executive, the product is free to be used anywhere by anyone for viewing KML or WMS data, or other data that it natively supports. Google wants to keep developers from embedding GE into other commercial products such as vehicle navigation devices (car GPS devices) or in other commercial GIS packages. For example, ESRI could not take GE and embed it into one of their products for resale without Google's approval, nor could Garmin use GE in their next Nuvi model. Chris also mentioned that GE is widely used in EPA, and I also know that US Fish and Wildlife distributes the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) data in KML, so federal usage of the free version is going on in big agencies. The question of GE licensing came up in the MEGUG round table due to GE being removed from PCs in certain county and federal government offices. Reading the license agreement (http://earth.google.com/intl/en/license.html) for the free version on my desktop, it clearly says in the first paragraph: "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..." and later "You may not use the Software in connection with any products, systems, or applications installed or otherwise connected to or in communication with vehicles for or in connection with: (a) real time route guidance (including without limitation, turn-by-turn route guidance and other routing that is enabled through the use of a sensor); (b) any systems or functions for automatic or autonomous control of vehicle behavior; or (c) dispatch, fleet management or similar applications. You may not use the Software in a manner which gives you or any other person access to mass downloads or bulk feeds of numerical latitude and longitude coordinates. You may not use the Software for any bulk printing or downloading of imagery, data or other content." Now I'm not a lawyer, but this seems clear that as long as you are not repackaging GE, as long as you are using it just to view KML files, that is fine and legal. I think that Google would make it very clear if they expected governments and businesses to shell out $400 a seat for GE just to use it. I haven't seen anything yet which indicates to me that commercial or government use of GE violates the agreement if you use the free version, as long as you are not redistributing GE. I believe the reason Google recommends businesses use the $400 "Pro" version is because it has more capabilities, things like GPS support and better printing capabilities, but they are not requiring businesses/governments to use it in lieu of the free version, as long as the users realize they are getting less for using the free version. The bottom line is you can't redistribute the service or data, you can only use the GE you are licensed for, or use the Google-approved API to program against Google. ********** Michael Smith State GIS Manager Maine Office of GIS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list (GEOLIBRARY-L) is an unmoderated discussion list for all Maine GIS Users. If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from this list, you can remove your name and email address yourself at the this web address: http://lists.maine.edu/cgi/wa?SUBED1=geolibrary-l&A=1 Or,you may also request that your name be removed by sending email to: [log in to unmask]