[OpenLayers-Users] Google license

[Christopher Schmidt]

On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 06:54:28PM -0600, Richard Greenwood wrote:
> I am confused with regard to the legal aspects of using Google maps in
> OL. Is this the license, or terms of service, that governs use of
> Google map layers in within OpenLayers:
> http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS or is there a different one?
> 
> Under http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS It says:
> "5.3 You agree not to access (or attempt to access) any of the
> Services by any means other than through the interface that is
> provided by Google..."
> So is Google referring to their server interface here, not their
> client JavaScript interface? And thus it is okay to use OL instead of
> the Google map API?
> 
> Basically my questions is: From a legal perspective, is there any
> difference between consuming and displaying Google map layers in
> OpenLayers as opposed to doing the same in Google maps API?

In short: No.

Slightly longer answer: The statement in the ToS above is referring to
the Google Maps API, but OpenLayers does not violate it. We use the
Google Maps API javascript for positioning, etc. In this sense,
OpenLayers is playing no different of a role than, say, jQuery or any
other Javascript library that you might use in your application: It's
simply allowing you to wrap up some "other Javascript" code around
the Google Maps API, which is perfectly allowed.

Using the Google Maps API, and using OpenLayers, present tiles in the
same way. 

Best Regards,
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
MetaCarta