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Satellite Imagery Licensing

Irish Scenery Developers

Irish Scenery Developers

Messages
8
Country
ireland
Hi guys,

I'm currently developing an airport and Bing seem to have the best imagery for that airport. The airport is very small so the imagery is only about 4km x 3km.

If someone could point me in the direction of where I would go to get this I would appreciate it and how much it would cost based on any previous experience that'd be great.

Thanks in advance,
Greg
 
I'm not entirely sure yet to be honest I will be deciding that closer to the finishing date of the project. I'm just wondering what to do regarding this if I decide to make it Commercial
 
You have tried Getty and DigitalGlobe? Typically a single Getty image to cover an area about the size of an airport is $575 US. Bear in mind that your finished scenery will not contain an extractable version of whatever photographic image you use, that will be locked in the scenery .bgl, which is a proprietary format. If you were to use the Bing map and leave the Bing logo visible, Bing representatives would probably have to somehow show in court that your scenery has caused a loss of revenue. If you removed the logo, it would be even harder for them to prevail.

The above paragraph does not endorse you to freely share copyright material, but it does put a perspective on what is involved.
In my own work flow, I would use the free image first and completely develop the scenery. If it is very large, I might consider investing in a commercial Geotiff. Otherwise, I would then use the image as a template, using Photoshop I completely "repaint" the ground photograph. In this way, I can only be accused of plagiarism, I am not yet skilled enough to exactly reproduce a photograph to the point of being accused of duplicating it.
;)
 
What area are you modelling the airport for? Because for some countries there are good open data source where you can get the imagery you want.

Else you indeed need to resort to commercial providers if you want to redistribute your scenery (doesn't matter if it's commercial or freeware in that case). But the cost of commercially buying imagery can quickly go up.
 
=rk= said:
You have tried Getty and DigitalGlobe? Typically a single Getty image to cover an area about the size of an airport is $575 US. Bear in mind that your finished scenery will not contain an extractable version of whatever photographic image you use, that will be locked in the scenery .bgl, which is a proprietary format. If you were to use the Bing map and leave the Bing logo visible, Bing representatives would probably have to somehow show in court that your scenery has caused a loss of revenue. If you removed the logo, it would be even harder for them to prevail.

The above paragraph does not endorse you to freely share copyright material, but it does put a perspective on what is involved.
In my own work flow, I would use the free image first and completely develop the scenery. If it is very large, I might consider investing in a commercial Geotiff. Otherwise, I would then use the image as a template, using Photoshop I completely "repaint" the ground photograph. In this way, I can only be accused of plagiarism, I am not yet skilled enough to exactly reproduce a photograph to the point of being accused of duplicating it.
;)
Click to expand...

Well I'm currently using Bing imagery as a basis but in their Terms of Use it states that it can be used for educational purposes and non-profit organisations so if I released it as freeware there's nothing they can do right?

arno said:
What area are you modelling the airport for? Because for some countries there are good open data source where you can get the imagery you want.

Else you indeed need to resort to commercial providers if you want to redistribute your scenery (doesn't matter if it's commercial or freeware in that case). But the cost of commercially buying imagery can quickly go up.
Click to expand...

The area is the North West of Ireland (EIKN)
 
Irish Scenery Developers said:
Well I'm currently using Bing imagery as a basis but in their Terms of Use it states that it can be used for educational purposes and non-profit organisations so if I released it as freeware there's nothing they can do right?
Click to expand...

The EULA clearly states you are not allowed to redistribute the data. Also the non-profit use seems to be for using the service via the API. Not for downloading and using the data in other products.

Irish Scenery Developers said:
The area is the North West of Ireland (EIKN)
Click to expand...

I did a quick search, but it seems there is no open/free imagery available for Ireland.
 
Converting geographically tagged photo imagery to a .bgl format that can only be viewed with specific software is an end state. If the original geotiff stays on the compiling computer and there is no way to retrieve it from the compiled .bgl, what has been distributed?

Here is an excerpt from the actual Bing TOS regarding limited website and consumer app use:

  • "Limited Commercial Windows App Use"means using the Services in a Windows App or Windows Phone App for commercial or government use over a private network under the TOU without entering into an Agreement, provided that (i) your use is consistent with the terms of Section 9; and (ii) your Company Application does not exceed 125,000 cumulative Billable Transactions (which will be free of charge) as defined in the SDK’s, per calendar year.
https://www.microsoft.com/maps/product/terms.html

From a quick scan, this category most closely resembled the system of conversion and redistribution that we use in our simulator scenery. Please note that this TOS assumes FULL transfer of the proprietary data and not a converted version of it. If, by this very imprecise, but still relevant yardstick, you are able to exceed 125,000 billable downloads in one year, you may have a licensing issue.
 
Is this part not quite clear:

3.2. General Restrictions.We do have some restrictions on your use of the Services. In developing Company Applications, and in using the Services, you may not, nor may you permit your customers to:
....
(m) Syndicate, redistribute, resell or sublicense access to the Services or Content on a standalone basis, unless specifically allowed in your Bing Maps Agreement.
...
(r) Save, download, print, distribute, transmit or manipulate the bird’s eye imagery, or offer others that ability, through your Company Application.
...
Click to expand...

Remember that we are talking about a API for a web service here. So in general you are allowed to use it on your website/application to show maps/imagery. Saving and distributing the data is clearly not allowed.
 
Syndication and redistribution on a stand alone basis is not an issue because the end result is an interpretation of the original data and most definitely not "stand alone," it would require specific software to view it. The term "bird's eye imagery" is important. Traditionally, it differs from true satellite imagery, in that it is a proprietary hybrid that provides an elevated view with perspective. Lately it has become extremely valuable to Garmin GPS style handheld device users.

"a view from a high angle as if seen by a bird in flight"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bird's-eye view

ARCgis website:
"This map contains the Bing Maps aerial imagery web mapping service, which offers worldwide orthographic aerial and satellite imagery."
https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=8651e4d585654f6b955564efe44d04e5

Bear in mind that the imagery is distinguished into two categories, orthographic aerial and satellite. Orthographic projection is a means of representing 3 dimensional objects in 2 dimensions, the role of bird's eye imagery.

If you have ever used the Bing Maps browser, you will know there are several viewing modes; street, satellite and the hybrid, bird's eye view. Googling the term bird's eye imagery returns a multitude of sale, lease and other offers for the data and the descriptions are largely indistinguishable from that of pure satellite imagery. The end use is actually very, very similar, GPS users want to be able to see the contours of a house from above and so do we. We use satellite imagery in our scenery .bgl's and the linked restrictions apply to the Bing service in general and bird's eye imagery specifically.

My interpretation of the above restrictions would be very lenient toward my intended use in the simulator. This of course constitutes personal opinion and I would need a substantial retainer before it could be construed as legal advice.
 
I'm also not a lawyer of course, but the EULA makes it clear that you should only use the data through their API. So saving it and using it in another application seems out of bounds for me. The fact that it gets compiled into a BGL doesn't matter in that case. Microsoft has licensed the data from external suppliers to be used in their maps application, those suppliers would be happy to sell it to you for other application domains :)

My, and the FSDeveloper official position, is always to discourage users to use such services if they want to distribute it. I know certain publishers do that as well. But like I said, I'm not a lawyer. So I'll stop this discussion now.
 
Hi guys,

unless things have changed in the last year the imagery visible on Bing in western Europe are 30-cm orthoairphotos owned and licensed by Digital Globe under the brand name "DG Precision Aerial Imagery", with acquisition dates of 2010/11.

One can preview the data with the DG imagery finder app but it's a bit hidden and apparently only shows up on the old version of their browser: https://browse.digitalglobe.com/

Zoom in to your area of interest then create a search polygon or upload a Shapefile of such a poly. Important is to click on the Modify Filter button and switch from Raw Imagery to Advanced Ortho Aerial. Then click on Search and a new window should pop up with one or more listed results. Click on View of the True Color image, which brings up another window. Switch Image Resize to "max available resolution" and wait for the image to load. It's only a low-resolution preview but should match in color and detail what you're seeing on Bing.

For the EIKN area this is the preview as selected above: https://tinyurl.com/y8pbqzj4

We use Harris/MapMart as our Digital Globe provider and paid US$11 per sq km last year for this particular type of airphoto imagery, with a minimum order of $600. Note that the standard Digital Globe license does not allow for distributing processed versions of the raw imagery to the end user! Most buyers of satellite imagery and airphotos are government agencies and corporations (oil&gas etc.) that only use the imagery in-house. For flightsim applications Digital Globe has created a special license, named Integrator License, which is what you need to ask for; unfortunately, it comes with a 50% surcharge. Thus, $11 become $16.50 per sq km.

Still, those "DG Precision Aerial Imagery" are a good deal if no public-domain alternative is available. Not only is the 30-cm airphoto resolution of very consistent quality, most satellite imagery, especially the newer stuff, is also much more expensive -- up to $35 per sq km -- and often has issues with atmospheric haze as well as parallax (i.e., taller buildings "lean" in one direction). Moreover, the orthoairphotos already are stitched together whereas satellite imagery often requires mosaicing and further orthocorrections -- for an additional fee -- unless you know how to do this yourself.

That being said, our DG reseller told us that there's a new airphoto product available for Western Europe, similar to the "DG Precision Aerial Imagery" but of newer date. I haven't seen this yet myself but I'm sure it would cost more than $16.50.

Last but not least, Digital Globe licenses do not distinguish between freeware and payware flightsim developers. After all, DG doesn't care if a developer chooses not to charge for his effort. If anything, freeware developers who simply grab DG imagery off GE or Bing tile servers create a disincentive for payware developers to work on the same area, meaning less business opportunities for DG. Thus, please do your research -- find out who the actual owner is of the imagery then find a reseller and describe your intended use --and don't make any assumptions, especially not that DG doesn't pay attention to how and by whom their imagery are used!

Cheers, Holger
 
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