Uhh... Mapping... etiquette? Originality?

[Jalyha]

So... I was looking at some pretty landscapes a friend was sharing with me, to sooth my ruffled feathers about a river issue... and there was this picture I skimmed past, but then I went through the pics a second time and realized it was one of the most beautiful (land/water-wise) things I'd ever seen. I didn't realize it at first because it's in a really dirty/ugly/metro place.

Normally, that wouldn't have occured to me at all... I don't paint metro areas... but when I saw this I thought "I want to map this".


Not, "as is" with buildings and factories and roads and smog... but, like... as a part of a larger fantasy world.

In essence, what I want to do, is steal an island. The whole island, with the river/falls around it, and the river banks on either side, and take the whole thing and clean it up.... send it back in time to when it was fresh and new and untouched by mankind. Then, I want to populate it PROPERLY with a race of people who will take care of it, and preserve it (some sort of elvish people, maybe) and build it up into a pretty little village and ... nevermind.

Point is, although I would be re-working *everything* (And all the actual marks on the virtual-paper would be mine,) I'd have to steal an island first.

I don't have any ethical holdups about this... I paint landscapes. That's what we do

BUT all the fantasy maps I've seen (and tutorials) here are about drawing your coastlines and whatnot from scratch or from random generations, and I started to wonder if stealing existing land forms is even allowed. (Or at least frowned upon..)


So, what's the etiquette for something like that? I don't mean someone else's work or their created worlds.. I mean, places that actually exist, that you could see from an airplane or a photograph or... you get what I mean, right? >.<

[Falconius]

You want to use real existent landforms in your fantasy map? For shame!

Really, I'm not understanding your dilemma though....

[Domino44]

I have seen people redo Tolkien maps before, I think it would be fine to use this map as a reference as long as it's going to be a personal project.

[Vivi]

There is nothing wrong with what you are wanting to do, as I see it. You are not stealing someone else's work, all your doing is using nature as inspiration.

[Jalyha]

Okay, since no one started throwing stones yet...


This is Goat Island:

goat_island.jpg

(Niagra)

So... I want to take it, and trace it (just the height of the land/depth of the water):

Niagra.jpg

So that I can see the heights/depths without all the... clutter.

Then I want to get rid of everything but that tracing, and try to... *redraw* (without tracing) and paint the water and land, and put forests where they once would have been, etc.

Then I want to put that in one of my fantasy worlds/maps/whatever and eventually build settlements there.

My *dilemma* is that I don't know if, starting with that tracing, what I want to do is allowed/legal/acceptable/appropriate/whatever.

Cause I don't know what the rules are with mapping

So... yea or nay?

[Vivi]

Well as you are going to create your own drawing from the trace of the island, I can't see anything wrong with it. As long as you don't use the google image in the map, which you aren't, then nothing wrong with it. Should look quite interesting.

[Domino44]

I can't think of any reason that would be wrong so… yea!

[Jalyha]

Okay, thanks guys I just wanted to make sure it wasn't like... cheating :p

[Ilanthar]

I'm absolutely not an expert in law (especially in other countries), but I can't see any problem in your project. On the contrary, that seems to be a good idea

Besides, if I recall well, Google is largely using satellite data passed in the public domain (because "enough old" to be consider like this), as a lot of things in the big US agencies (meteorology, astronomy, USGS... and that's of good use for us!).

[Azélor]

Both pictures does not look like the same place at all!

What Vivi said and this: Copying the image of Google is problematic but not a drawing based on the image. As far as I know, landform are not subject to copyrights