Alright... Thanks everyone! (I've started my map as a WIP... if I get out of line, let me know?)
Unless you are trying to sell the map you make then it's even less of an issue. Sure companies can stop you using any of their property (eg. Disney suing some Daycare centers for painting Disney characters as murals on the walls... yeh...) I honestly can't see Google hunting you down and hitting you up with a cease and desist
We all use images as inspiration, don't worry about it.
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As much as I'm sure they'd like to, Google can't copyright the Earth, only their images of the Earth.
Originally Posted by Falconius
STORY IDEA
Google as world conquerors ;_;
Another thing to consider, maps produced by forum members intended for publication, that are co-opted by other cartographers here without permission for their own projects require the permission of both the original cartographer and the publisher - and often the answer is "no". Mike Schley is one of our renowned members doing lots of cartography commissions for Wizards of the Coast, often for D&D maps. Any of those maps posted here, cannot be reposted elsewhere or used in personal projects at all. There was a case where some new member here wanted to base a town on the style of Mike Schley, but literally used one of his maps to alter for his own purposes, but that member reposted his altered version on the forums. Mike Schley showed up and asked it to be removed from the boards and had the issue not been resolved a cease and desist order from WotC attorneys may have been the next recourse. So it depends on who the cartographer is, what is the intended published purpose for a given map, and who the publisher is - whether you can do derivitive work from maps produced by other cartographers.
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O.O Right. Well that makes sense I suppose. There's a huge distinction between "inspired by", "derivative of", and outright plagiarism, in any medium.
I'll make sure to only use real places
This is basically right, but they have a copyright not just on those images but on those concrete representations. So if you did something that is clearly derivative of their images--e.g. an exact tracing, or maybe even a larger image that uses a partial outline taken from their photo--then you could fall under their copyright.
One good test for doing a map of something in the real world is "could I have made exactly this map if I had used a different set of images from slightly different angles as my source?" If so, then you're probably fine. If something you do depends on the exact picture used, then you need to dig deeper (is the photo copyrighted? Does my work fall under fair use? etc).
Alright.I'm doing a slightly different angle anyway, so I should be safe, I mostly just used Google for a tracing that shows the basic layout/height info.
... then I'm using the tracing as a reference for that, not to actually draw on !
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Sounds okay to me, but this isn't legal advice.
I'd just like to add that a long time ago we actually had a challenge to base a map on a real-world location. If I recall correctly, the winner was a map of the Niagara region by RobA: http://www.cartographersguild.com/ma...y-niagara.html
In addition, some mappers like to use a real coastline, or a synthesis of several coastlines, as a starting point for a fictional map. You can get realistic looking heightfields and mountain ranges the same way. Those are even better because it's really unlikely that someone will recognize a heightmap, whereas they might recognize a coast.
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