[Qgis-developer] Adding plugins to core?

[Vincent Picavet]

Hello,

Le lundi 7 avril 2014 07:47:37, Nyall Dawson a écrit :
> >> I agree that it would be a great thing to have the OpenLayers plugin
> >> (or at least a similalar functionality) available by default in core
> > 
> > It seems that we all agree on this could you write the list, so we'll ask
> > Pirmin? All the best.
> 
> I'm not 100% sure on this, but isn't the OpenLayers plugin a bit
> legally murky? I'm pretty sure that it's either  violating the Google
> maps terms of service or if not, it's cutting it pretty close. I know
> the Viking GPS program ran into issues back in 2008 with their
> in-built support for google maps layers [1][2] and were forced to
> remove this support.
> 
> Having OpenLayers as a non-official plugin gives us some distance from
> issues like this - if we make this a core feature then we are
> effectively endorsing this functionality and may be opening ourselves
> to potential legal issues.

I had the exact same concern. Without a clear note from Google indicating that 
this plugin is ok, I think the risk is pretty high of licence violation. 
Google maps is supposed to be accessed only "from a browser" and not from a 
desktop application behaving like a browser.
It would be a pain for users if we add this plugin and then we have to remove 
it on Google's demand.

A good solution though would be to remove google layers and only use OSM and 
mapbox layers, which begin to be on par in terms of quality. Or let the user a 
deliberate way to add google layers (indicating a URL or something like this), 
warning him about the licence.

Vincent