Users apoplectic at Google for stamping on MGMaps

Picture 94
Originally uploaded by smstextnews.

Google is not impressed.

The ENFORCEMENT team have been screaming blind at Cristian Streng of MGMaps (developer of one of the best mobile mapping applications around).

MGMaps makes use of Google Maps, Microsoft, Ask, OpenStreetMap and Yahoo.

Google’s ENFORCEMENT team were having none of it. Here’s what that looks like:

We understand that you have developed an application, Mobile Gmaps, that displays maps tiles from our Google Maps for mobile application.

You probably did this to show support for Google, but this use of our
map tiles violates our rights and the rights of the entities that
license those map tiles to us. As indicated in the Terms of Service
accompanying Google Maps for mobile
(http://www.google.com/gmm/tc.html?hl=en), you should not create
derivative works, such as your application, without contacting us and
obtaining our permission first.

Because your use of our content is not authorized, we must ask that
you stop displaying maps tiles from Google Maps for mobile in your own application. Please confirm immediately that you will do so.

Regards,

Google Enforcement Team

You’d think that Google, big friendly giant that they are, would have written a friendly mail to Cristian to thank him for picking up, running and innovating with their stuff. I would have imagined they might have emailed to ask him to license their stuff for a nominal $500 fee or something, to make it ‘legal’.

One imagines that MGMaps, whilst being a really smart implementation, does not pose a serious threat at all to Google’s world domination strategy. If anything, they could even have offered to acquire it. Or the could have explained just exactly what they didn’t like and offered an alternative solution.

But, well. It’s always disappointing when ENFORCEMENT teams step into the breach. Clearly, a senior Google executive needs to step in and sort out the mess.

MGMaps still works perfectly well with other mapping services so I certainly recommend you take a look at it.

The full news from MGMaps is here and you can download it here.