Sometimes it is just too easy to forget that thia is not a game

Hey, who made me make a topic which I did not make?

For legal reasons.

It's officially forbidden by Waze, now you're warned.

Olestas wrote:
But why google?? And Waze livemap? At least put livemap back... it was very useful.

The livemap is not an external source and probably was not included in the intent of Waze's request. Mabye Oyyo can bring us back that button. Even if the link at the top is just the same, it is still hidden from all of us who edit in fullscreen.

gamasi wrote:Unbelievable

Why remove all the references to external maps???

What are the "legal reasons" ??

There is a wiki page which goes into great detail about these legal reasons Using external sources. I'll quote the beginning of it here, please go there to the full article. The emphasis is mine.

Using external sources wiki page wrote:Usage of any external copyrighted source of information, in order to add information to the Waze database or maps, is not allowed. External copyright information includes any online or printed map information that is not provided by Waze through the Waze Map Editor interface.

With the recent acquisition of Waze by Google, Inc., changes have been made to the Waze Map Editor to include updated aerial and street view images from Google. These are considered internal sources and completely acceptable to be used in creating map information for Waze. Google's terms of use restricts use of their map information to specific conditions and Waze has the proper licensing to use what you see inside the Waze Map Editor, but nothing else.

Using any source of external copyright information puts the Waze maps under danger of being forced to revert all changes done to the map in your area / country.

As the last sentence quoted says, if Waze is challenged legally about the map in a certain area, as having been (partially) copied from a copyrighted source, it will not be able to easily pick out which edits were illegal. They will have to show the courts they are taking decisive action as soon as they learn of the infraction. To do so they will, as they have already done in the past, revert the map of that entire area (possibly even the entire country) back to the basemap import. All the work of the editors in that area will be lost permanently. This is why it is imperative not to copy anything into Waze from external sources. Having the links to those sources readily available, makes it all that much easier for an unsuspecting editor who hasn't read this wiki page to mistakenly copy over protected data into Waze.

The entire point is that for legal reasons we are NOT ALLOWED to ...

elcitia wrote:... search any point place or street name quickly, and the other map will be reference for best result. I hope it will be back soon?

and then add that information into Waze. If we did that, we are STEALING that data from the other source, and it can cause major problems! What Waze is saying, is that you were never allowed to use those sources to gather information to be copied into Waze. They don't actively look for it, but if it is ever brought to their attention that such actions were taking place, i.e. people were copying data from other sources into Waze, you can rest assured that to avoid any legal troubles, the staff would immediately just wipe that entire area clean of any-and-all edits. This would then bring that area back to zero erasing countless hours of our volunteer work. No-one wants that to happen, so they asked nicely, to make it harder for people to do that.

Oyyo probably understands the ramifications this can bring, and therefore has chosen to comply with their request.

OTOH the livemap link button is in a separate category as it links to a waze property, and there is also an argument which can be made for the GMM link as well.

Fredo-p wrote:Did anyone download the script? Maybe we could get that section of the script to manually enter the links back into the toolbar for those who want to use it.

We should not be looking for ways to get around this, we should not be doing this at all! We are jeopardizing everyone's work by importing (even seemingly small amounts of) data from external sources.

SuperDave1426 wrote:

jasonh300 wrote:This is the very reason for those other sources being disallowed. Looking at Google Maps to get the name of the street could be construed as a copyright violation.

You're aware that street names are a matter of public record, right?

A link to that public record can be incorporated into Waze, in fact waze has said it would appreciate being given those links. But copying out of a copyrighted database, who did the work of searching the public and displaying it nicely, may be different. Also keep in mind, not all street/venue names as displayed in Google Maps are written exactly as they appear in public record.

SuperDave1426 wrote:

PesachZ wrote:

SuperDave1426 wrote: You're aware that street names are a matter of public record, right?

A link to that public record can be incorporated into Waze, in fact waze has said it would appreciate being given those links. But copying out of a copyrighted database, who did the work of searching the public and displaying it nicely, may be different. Also keep in mind, not all street/venue names as displayed in Google Maps are written exactly as they appear in public record.

While they can copyright the presentation of that public information, they cannot copyright the public information itself. If they could, nobody would ever be able to record a new presentation of any of Bach's symphonies as long as there's a current recording of it that's copyrighted.

In the above example, I could take the exact same sheet music that was used for one recording, throw together an orchestra, have them play it while I record it, and sell the new recording without ever violating the rights of the first recording company. I can't, however, copy a CD of the other recording and run around selling it - that would be a violation of their copyright.

The point being that copyrighting the presentation of a public work is the same, regardless of the medium.

Doing a visual check (with your eyes) to confirm a publicly-available street name and then making a change elsewhere manually isn't the same thing as an actual copy would be.

You are correct, however if their version of the street name, place name, etc. is slightly different than the public record, and you copy it into Waze, you have now copied protected data which is not in the public record. The only way to be certain what you are copying is public, is to look for it in the public record, not in a protected source.

Perhaps Oyyo can add the buttons, back but only with not copyrighted sources i.e. livemap, beta editor, non-copyrighted public record sites or government GIS.

HavanaDay wrote:While I agree with the sentiments posted recently above. I used the google map maker link for quick referencing when I actually did want to make a change to the google map. With that gone I am less likely inclined to do so. To translate that in to plain english I will not be fixing Google Map problems any more but referring said errors by reporters to fix it themselves.

I never had much success with GMM anyway, but as I said earlier, maybe Oyyo can restore just that external source. Perhaps with a notice To be used only for making edits to Google Maps. DO NOT copy any information from Google Maps into Waze. linking to the wiki page on external sources. It could be arranged a notice above the GMM site in a frame, or a popup notice when you click the button, or something creative.