Google Earth Imagery, Fair Use or Not
Written by Chad on September 18th, 2007I was going to say something about this post yesterday.. but held off (and glad I did) because datum shift did a nice reply. That I will just link too instead. He really got irked by this part of freegeotools post, probably more irked that I had gotten.
Imagery in Google Earth is copyrighted, and using it for any other purpose than viewing in Google Earth falls under the restrictions of copyright law and fair use.
Fair use… Google does not use that term with talking about imagery in Google Earth (though they use the line, “Our imagery providers will not let us”), even Frank from Google Earth Blog came in against the post.
I’ll second what Erik just said. Anyone planning to use an image from Google Earth for a business application should read the GE user license first. The imagery in Google Earth is mostly restricted by those who have licensed it to Google. You can seek permission to use imagery from Google Earth, but some of the license holders will require you to buy the imagery for a business application, or not allow it. Some of the imagery is license free (like those from NASA).
Which make sense, but highlights another sticky point, the way GE has mushed ALL the imagery together, all but makes it useless. I may want to use imagery of location “X” and the imagery in that location is public domain imagery but there is OTHER imagery in that location that is not public domain and I don’t have the rights to use that imagery.
So now, this almost effectively locks up public domain imagery that Google Earth shows and now you can only use Google Earth and Google Maps to view said imagery. (Unless you have the knowledge and skills to located the source provider, download the imagery and process it into the images you need.) You no longer have “Fair Use” of the imagery because of all the other licenses for other imagery.
Now, you can go an spend some money to get Google Earth Pro, but why should I have to pay $400 to get Public Domain (license free) imagery?
This is probably why there is a steady upswing in World Wind users I guess, they all like the license free use of the imagery and tools (save for the Virtual Earth imagery).
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A few points:
1. Fair use is a fundamental part of copyright law - you can’t separate the two, even if you wanted to. Many producers of copyrighted material have tried to in the legal system over the years, with little success; “fair use” has been judged to be in the public interest.
2. I’ve done a follow-up post today that goes into the issue of what constitutes “fair use”, and what doesn’t. People have this idea that a copyright forbids use of that material for any purpose under any situation, and that isn’t supported by the law or centuries of legal precedents. Read the literature on the topic if you don’t believe me.
3. You have misread Frank’s comment. He points out that use of Google Earth imagery in business applications, where it would be used for profit, would require licensing of it. And for the most part I agree with that, because most such uses would fall outside the bounds of fair use. But even there, there are exceptions for works that add transformative value. He makes no mention of personal or non-commercial use, much of which would fall under “fair use”.
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I was going to say something about this post yesterday.. but held off (and glad I did) because datum shift did a nice reply.
How was that a nice reply? The only thing it demonstrates is the author’s utter ignorance regarding the difference between intellectual property and real property. You can’t steal anything that is nonrivalrous - it is contrary to the definitions of those terms.