Has one of your friends or family ever printed out a map from Yahoo or Google to tell you how to get to a family event or party? It happens all the time, but did you know there’s a good chance they’re breaking copyright law? That sounds pretty fun, doesn’t it? However, you may be doing this in your small business if you have a sale and print directions to your business on a flyer. I’ve even seen maps in the Yellow Pages that were printed directly from Yahoo Maps, even copyrighted. That’s interesting isn’t it?
On the one hand, Yahoo Maps is getting the credit, and it’s an advertisement in itself for them, but it’s also copyright infringement for the person who printed it. Yahoo and Google obviously expect people to print the screen of their maps, and they even have easy-to-print versions, albeit with the copyright at the bottom. Now, what about using the satellite images from Google Earth, or Street View and printing them too? is that allowed? Obviously, Google holds the copyright. Let’s discuss this for a few moments if we can. You see, in 1790 the first US copyright law was created that covers;
Books
Graphics
maps
But over the years, it has come to cover a myriad of other things, such as, among others;
Engravings
frame
Photographs
Films
Radio and television broadcasts
cable broadcasts
Music
Satellite broadcasts
computer software
Regardless of how that information is stored, it is subject to copyright. It is supposed to be copyrighted, and those who have created this information are entitled to those copyrights. Not long ago, I was talking to a commercial real estate agent who copied a file from Street View to Google Maps and showed me a commercial location for sale. Interestingly enough, he had that same picture on his website in the “for sale” listings. Now we’re starting to get into trouble, right? All such information is protected by copyright law.
Some might say that Google wouldn’t mind, and that’s probably true. After all, Google has copied quite a few works from bygone eras, old books and the like, for example. However, when someone starts putting this information on their website in the same medium that Google produced it, they’re violating copyright, even if Google isn’t going to go after a commercial real estate seller. Even if the entire industry starts doing it, it’s doubtful that Google will want to file a lawsuit or a series of lawsuits to stop it.
They don’t need the bad publicity, but that doesn’t make it all right. And therefore, I hope that you will please consider all of this and think about it. If you would like to discuss this at a much higher level, please email me.
Reference:
“How to Handle Basic Copyright and Trademark Problems”, by Richard Dannay, President of the Audio Cassette Program at the Practicing Law Institute, New York, 1990, 4 x 7-sided cassettes of 30 minutes each.