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A comment on Why you should not pirate Google’s geo APIs. Parent comment

Re:Why you should not pirate Google’s geo APIs by Killswitch on Monday September 09, 2013 @08:21PM (#6357209)
I think you're confusing accessing a public version of their data with accessing their API, which this thread is about. When you use maps.google.com you are NOT agreeing to any terms, because they don't really require any to use their data on their site, but when you use the API, you're required to agree to their terms before being able to use it.
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Re:Why you should not pirate Google’s geo APIs by nostrademons on Monday September 09, 2013 @09:01PM (#6357335)
FWIW, there's a "Terms" link at the bottom of maps.google.com which links to the additional ToS for Google Maps/Earth:

https://www.google.com/intl/en_us/help/terms_maps.html

and the first link there is the Google Universal Terms of Service that you also agree to bind yourself to:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/

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Re:Why you should not pirate Google’s geo APIs by _delirium on Wednesday September 11, 2013 @07:12PM (#6370805)
In what sense did I "agree to bind [myself]" to those terms? I just loaded a public website that has map tiles on it. You are arguing that I have agreed, thereby, to something written on a different website (two clicks away), which I was neither presented, nor asked to agree to, nor signed an agreement to?

It seems very similar in the sense to which Google "agreed" to pay me money if they spider my page more than N times/day, which is what my own website's terms say in the footer. Yet I've never received a check. Is Google playing dumb and claiming they never read the terms, so can't be held liable?

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Re:Why you should not pirate Google’s geo APIs by drdaeman on Monday September 09, 2013 @09:21PM (#6357429)
Aren't the same exact APIs are serving as backend to that "public version"?

If so, looking at whatever data's on your wire (browsers are subclass of user-agents for a reason), and then doing similar requests by example does not make you sign some agreement with Google, right?

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Re:Why you should not pirate Google’s geo APIs by enneff on Monday September 09, 2013 @11:56PM (#6358074)
> Aren't the same exact APIs are serving as backend to that "public version"?

Nope.

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Re:Why you should not pirate Google’s geo APIs by Killswitch on Monday September 09, 2013 @09:44PM (#6357540)
Just because their app consumes their API doesn't mean that the app and it's endusers are subject to the same terms as the API.
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