Concerning copyright

[rob93c]

Hello LGs! I noticed many activities around me have a very poor tab on Maps but a really nice page on Facebook. Since some of those places don't have any photo of it am I allowed to put one taken from their Facebook page? Is there a way to specify I'm not the "owner" of the photo?

Have a great day, Roberto.

[LucasKellermann]

Hey @rob93c

I don't really know if there is a rule about taking photos from Facebook.

Basically, it makes sense to think that if some business share photos on their Facebook page, it's to be viewed by the public. 

Maybe a Moderator could help us, if we can only upload our own photos, or can we use photos from other sources ...

@YK1001

🤔😉

[JacekNK · Accepted solution]

Hi @rob93c @LucasKellermann

No. It's not allowed. You can only publicly send to Google Maps any content which you are a copyright owner or you have a straight  licence for using it in that way.

The main part of Local Guides Program rules is Google Terms of Service:

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

where you can read:

We provide information to help copyright holders manage their intellectual property online. If you think somebody is violating your copyrights and want to notify us, you can find information about submitting notices and Google’s policy about responding to notices in our Help Center.

When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services. Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to our Services.

The content which is violating copyrights can be flagged.

Violation of someone else copyrights can end with your suspension in Local Guides Program, suspension of your whole Google account or even law problems with the owner of the content.

Regards,

Jacek

[rob93c]

Thank you for the perfect answer @JacekNK, I may don't like it but that's the rule so I won't upload those photos. 

[JacekNK]

@rob93c

Rules are rules but we can earn many LG points by adding our own photos and we (as LG) can be happy that our content is helping improving Google Maps 🙂

Regards,

Jacek

[LucasKellermann]

@JacekNK

Thanks for the very precise answer!

I got the point about Google using our pictures, so it must be ours!

😉

[YK1001]

Hi @LucasKellermann,

As @JacekNK stated, we LG can only upload photos taken by ourselves to Maps.

[deepak_bhalla]

Hi ! @rob93c,

I completely agree with @JacekNK,  that as per the rules we cannot and should not post the material/s owned by others. Though you have the very right intentions to mention the credit where it's due however being a local guide, we have to follow the rules.

Ciao  ! !

Deepak

[Nick-Hobgood]

To all:  I have had to report copyright infringement by a Local Guide for using a large number of my images after I sent the person a polite request to remove images that are not his from his Google Maps account.   He did not comply so I had to report him to Google Legal.  

It is clear from the following images that the user does not respect copyright as he has reposted images that are clearly watermarked by the copyright holder.  As mentioned in this thread, this user should be told to remove images that are not his, by Local Guide Moderators.  If not, his account should be considered for removal.  

[Links removed] 

Using the same image as if in Congo and in Turkey and claiming them as his own by putting his watermark on them.  

[Links removed] 

Thanks

Nick

[GeorgesHR]

Hey @Nick-Hobgood,

Thanks for reaching out.

Such violations should be reported to as described in this article - Legal Removal Requests. I took note of this Local Guide and I will be removing the links you have provided for privacy reasons.