Does anyone out there know what the legality is of using a map image from somewhere like mapquest or google maps? Is it okay? Not okay? Iffy? I'm working on a site and would like to have a few map images showing various locations where visitors to my site will be able to find the things I'm writing about. Ideally I'd like to not have to create a map from scratch -- and just use an image from mapquest or google that I resize, crop and perhaps adjust the colors so it better fits my color scheme. I like to do things on the "up and up" as much as possible and I don't want to run into any problems in the future with regard to copyright or content violations. The other part of me wants to revert back to art-school form where "appropriating" images, designs and whatnot -- and then using those as a base to create your own artwork was considered completely legit. Oh, but I'm not in art-school any longer and don't want to run into any problems. Does anyone know the protocal for using map segments from other sources? Thanks in advance for your advice/help.
I have used map images on many, many sites and never had any problems. However, i never edited the images and always made sure to leave the "mapquest" logo on the image. I also saved the images to my server; i wouldnt reccomend hotlinking the map images. I think if you stick to that, you wont have any problems. And, if they notice it on your site and they dont like it, they will just send you an email asking you to remove the images.
in Google TOS you may not display the images from their maps on your webpage. But using their API, its really easy to just show the actual map, AJAX, Satellite images and trademark all on your site, try here to start.