[Qgis-user] does open layers distribute my own layers?

[Alister Hood]

Hi,

> Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:29:02 +0200
> From: Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net>
> Subject: Re: [Qgis-user] does open layers distribute my own layers?
> To: <qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org>
> Message-ID: <a0e8d186379383188e58ad37bba93b3a at carto.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
> 
>  Hi,
> 
>  Your data is certainly not automagically uploaded to OL servers. It
>  wouldn't even be technically feasible.
> 
>  It is your responsibility, however, to respect the Open Layers
license,
>  which is quite liberal, anyway. BSD style licenses typically only
>  require that you do not remove the copyrights from the source code
and
>  give credits. It is totally fine to combine it with commercial
services.
> 
>  Andreas

I think you may have misunderstood the question, Andreas.  I think it is
about the copyright of the layers that you can load with the OpenLayers
QGIS plugin, not the copyright of the Open Layers code.

>  On Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:17:39 -0700 (PDT), cubarro wrote:
> > Dear qgis users.
> >
> > I am wondering  about the use of Open Layers.  Because I am not
> > lawyer and I
> > have not read all the conditions on using this data, I have a
> > question.

Perhaps you need to read the conditions then ;)
Unfortunately the providers of some of these layers have not made it
easy to find out what you are allowed to use them for :(

I am also not a lawyer, but from what I could tell when I looked into
it, you are essentially not allowed to use the layers from _Google_ in
any derivative works... except something like producing a flyer for your
business and using it to show your business location.  This is the case
even if you use Google Earth Professional - if you want to create
derivative works you need to license the imagery from the original
copyright holder (which is not Google).  The law in your country may
grant you additional rights, e.g. to use it for "academic" use, or maybe
for a "work of art" or something.

I have read that the license for Yahoo and/or Bing imagery may be a lot
less restrictive, but that was specifically in the context of using it
to trace Openstreetmap data (they may have granted permission just for
this; I'm not sure), and I think I never found a conclusive answer.

The Openstreetmap layer: I haven't read the license, but I'm sure it is
easy to find and quite explicit about the requirements :)

> > If I use open layers, my own data will be automatically distributed
> > to those
> > servers?
> >
> > Regards.
> >
> > Lopez


Alister