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Terrain aerial photo sources for commercial project

Marionettework

Marionettework

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ca-ontario
What are some sources people use for enhancing terrain textures around airports, that can be licensed or are public domain and can be used in a commercial project? Are there some major go-to providers, or does it depend entirely on which city you're looking for and can you get this kind of stuff free from most local governments?

I'm interested in North Africa in particular and Google has decent photos, is it economically feasible to license from them? Anyone else? I don't expect to sell many copies so ideally I'm looking for something free. :)
 
I would first check if the national geo office of the country you are making the airport in has some material available. More and more countries offer data for free. I am not sure if that is in North Africa as well.

Else there are big providers where you can acquire satelite imagery. But the cost for that can quickly run into a few thousand euro/dollar. So if that is economical for your project I don't know.
 
Bing has fewer restrictions than Google, due to Google's stake in GPS apps. Even Trimble has switched to Bing aerial imagery in Sketchup's geo mapping features.

Considering I never use an unedited satellite image, the question arises, "at which point does one stop editing an example of copyright media and instead, start creating an entirely original work, using copyright media for inspiration."
 
Also Bing is already used in the sim, so I think it would be weird if they came after you for using the same source as the game, by the company who makes the game, in the mod that improves the game...
 
Well, the imagery is not owned by Microsoft, it is licensed from companies that makes such imagery.

So if you want to use imagery in a commercial product you better make sure you have a proper licence for it.
 
I believe Arno is right in this. We don't normally delve into legality of this nature here, as we are not lawyers. Everything I have read concerning aerial imagery from Bing allows ONLY the use of it for tracing the images for use in OSM. From OSM you can then download vectors.

Most of us believe you can use imagery of any source for personal, non-distributed use. But commercial products, or shared freeware is prohibited by both Microsoft (Bing) and Google.
 
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