[Qgis-user] Geocoding with MMQGIS - Web service geocode

[Charles Dixon-Paver]

I know I'm going off topic here, and I think any further discussion on this
should be in another thread, but I'll respond here just to fill in a bit of
a knowledge gap that there seems to be.

I share the sentiment on fair data usage policy and am also frustrated by
the promotion of "incorrect" data utilisation to some extent, but I think
if we look at things objectively, the QGIS community is actually typically
quite well behaved in this regard, and undeserving of our anger.

Most Geocoding tools support multiple services, and this limitation of the
"Google API" is an arbitrary/ non-obvious concept that I would not expect
anybody (developer or client) to reasonably know about (this is a legal
consideration in many jurisdictions). You could easily build tools for a
service you don't utilise so expecting the developers to handle this sort
of limitation effectively (especially since it would involve additional
technical challenges) is probably rather unrealistic. In this particular
instance, since it is a Google specific plugin, I agree more could be done
to communicate the policies, but in the vast majority of cases this is
simply not the case.

In terms of the nominatim integration, the extent of the utilisation and
prevention of the abuse of that service has been discussed on the QGIS
mailing lists, with the developers actively integrating rate limiting in
QGIS, not on the service, amongst other protection measures. In addition,
the PSC Chair sent out correspondence to the OSMF detailing the
implementation in order to receive permission to integrate the nominatim
into QGIS in a fair and responsible manner.

In terms of remaining "ethical", I'd say QGIS as a community does do an
excellent job by default. Whilst there is always room for improvement, as
much of the work done is volunteer work it is difficult to justify
screening community content such as plugins for ethical violations. If
anyone has suggestions on how to better approach the issue as a project and
a community, raising it as a query on the mailing list is a good place to
start.

On Fri, 28 May 2021 at 06:00, Tobias Wendorff <
tobias.wendorff at tu-dortmund.de> wrote:

> Am 28.05.2021 um 00:13 schrieb Nyall Dawson:
>  >
> > 1. Since you already have a Google Maps API key, you can use this
> > plugin (so long as you are on QGIS 3.18!)
> > https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/google_maps_geocoder/ . It adds a new
> > processing batch geocoder using Google maps, and since it's a
> > Processing algorithm it's very flexible to run (and can be used in
> > models, from the command line, etc). It also adds a new locator bar
> > shortcut for directly navigating to places on the map using Google
> > maps locations.
>
> I am really angry that QGIS still has this plugin. The Google APIs
> (Places, etc.) clearly prohibit geometries from being exported and
> stored permanently. The only thing that is allowed to be stored
> permanently is the Google Places-ID.
>
> We always should tell unexperienced users that rights of use and
> copyright might be violated by the use of such plugins. Google has also
> just licensed most of its data from third parties and is subject to
> restrictions on sharing it. Even if it does not violate copyrights in
> some countries, it is against Google's terms of use.
>
> The same is true for OpenStreetMap. Although the data is free, the use
> of the geocoder "nominatim" is subject to a right of use with
> restrictions to use it. The conditions must be followed.
>
> Sure, everyone is responsible for themselves when they obtain a Google
> API key. They agree to exactly these usage rights. But especially
> inexperienced users are simply told: just get an API key, then you can
> automatically georeference your geodata collection via QGIS. This sends
> a bad signal and is unethical.
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