4 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Where did you get those? 

https://www.reddit.com/r/FS2020Creation/

I would gladly step in and add hi-res scenery add-ons to FS2020 and of course do it as freeware, but with the current Google maps satellite imagery being watermarked with their copyright at all zoom levels it’s unfortunately a no-go.

1 hour ago, mrmertz said:

I would gladly step in and add hi-res scenery add-ons to FS2020 and of course do it as freeware, but with the current Google maps satellite imagery being watermarked with their copyright at all zoom levels it’s unfortunately a no-go.

I honestly can't see a problem with using Google Maps data for personal use. Have they issued a statement forbidding usage in flight sims? The whole raison d'etre of Google is that they provide information for people and businesses, even the government to use. If I need the address of a dentist, I look his or her website up on Google Search, find the location of the dentist's office on Google Maps, and follow the directions on my iphone to get there. Wouldn't it be unfair to discriminate against flight sim users?

10 hours ago, dobee51 said:

I honestly can't see a problem with using Google Maps data for personal use. Have they issued a statement forbidding usage in flight sims? The whole raison d'etre of Google is that they provide information for people and businesses, even the government to use. If I need the address of a dentist, I look his or her website up on Google Search, find the location of the dentist's office on Google Maps, and follow the directions on my iphone to get there. Wouldn't it be unfair to discriminate against flight sim users?

I’m beginning to think it’s fine. There are posts all over the place (meaning various different websites) that have it right below in the scenery description that it was derived from Google maps and they’ve been there for a while, with none being taken down. There are articles written exclusively about Google being used in FS2020 to enhance it.
 

Now yeah, if I was pulling polygons and adding texture for my own personal use (as in going no further than my own PC and not uploading to a public access server, then even if there were TOTAL copyright restrictions no one would be the wiser) but I’m reading under their fair use act and disclaimers and credits from various scenery authors who have uploaded sceneries for FS2020 that it does not violate their fair use act. 
 

In contrast if I pulled data from them and then went any multitude of ways such as charging for use of my final scenery to the end user, represented myself as using my own resources and receiving monetary gain or using their data in such a way to profit directly from its use in another form, then your asking to be royally, you know...

 

Thanks for the input!

Google encourage creative usage for free for non-commercial use:

https://www.google.com/permissions/geoguidelines/

 

They do however say this:

Quote

Prohibited Conduct

Note that you may not use output from Google Earth, Google Earth Pro and Earth Studio to reconstruct 3D models or create similar content, or to create other content, product(s) or service(s) that may violate our Terms of Service.

 

HOWEVER  it could be argued that the individual user is not actually creating 3D models just updating the game data and it just so happens the game makes 3D models from the downloads. No idea how a court would rule on that one.  Nor is there any sense internet lawyering and trying to apply common-sense to the issue. It is the law and common-sense is irrelevant, it would all depend on what the court happened to rule on the day.

Edited October 26, 20205 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

This will be all fun and games till one day google for whatever other reason not fs2020 related says stop using our stuff or else . 

on the other hand MicroSoft should step up their database to avoid us looking elsewhere for better looking objects. 

Edited October 26, 20205 yr by rtodepart

8 minutes ago, rtodepart said:

This will be all fun and games till one day google for whatever other reason not fs2020 related says stop using our stuff or else . 

on the other hand ma should step up their database to avoid US looking elsewhere for better looking objects. 

I think the prohibition in the Google page is directed at people building there own driverless car apps or satnav GPS software rather than gamers.

In the end, being  a US company it would need a supreme court ruling to clarify it and the US supreme court is very political. Most likely Supreme Court with a conservative majority would tend to rule in favor of companies being able to sue anyone that does not pay licence fees whereas a left leaning majority court would swing towards individual rights and fair use.

3 hours ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

Google encourage creative usage for free for non-commercial use:

https://www.google.com/permissions/geoguidelines/

 

They do however say this:

 

HOWEVER  it could be argued that the individual user is not actually creating 3D models just updating the game data and it just so happens the game makes 3D models from the downloads. No idea how a court would rule on that one.  Nor is there any sense internet lawyering and trying to apply common-sense to the issue. It is the law and common-sense is irrelevant, it would all depend on what the court happened to rule on the day.

The quote from them you have within your post (copied below) is interesting, as the three mentioned does NOT include Google Maps, which is where I’ve seen everything being derived from thus far in so much as scenery add-ons.

Prohibited Conduct

Note that you may not use output from Google Earth, Google Earth Pro and Earth Studio to reconstruct 3D models or create similar content, or to create other content, product(s) or service(s) that may violate our Terms of Service.

To further add to the confusion, listed here 

https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms/ 

I picked up on this further down in the read that caught my attention;

“(e) No Use With Non-Google Maps. To avoid quality issues and/or brand confusion, Customer will not use the Google Maps Core Services with or near a non-Google Map in a Customer Application. For example, Customer will not (i) display or use Places content on a non-Google map, (ii) display Street View imagery and non-Google maps on the same screen, or (iii) link a Google Map to non-Google Maps content or a non-Google map.“

Sigh...this stuff was obviously written by an entire team of lawyers. It seems to understand the full validity in what they are referencing to you have to keep going back and forth content as to what they are trying to say.
 

Like the above quote in which they mention “...display or use Places content...” and lines such as “Customer will not use the Google Maps Core Services with or near a non-Google Map in a Customer Application.” Okay, so now one has to go and find Google Map Core Services as defined by Google in order to understand what they are referencing to.

Too bad Bing falls short when it comes to high definition 3D modeling compared to Google as this would all be unnecessary to begin with. 

 

 

Edited October 26, 20205 yr by mrmertz