How do we define "FREE" about leaflet-providers HOT 28 CLOSED

Your suggestions sound good. Just to think out loud: does it leave us with a gray area to be discussed over and over or is the distinction clear enough?

from leaflet-providers.

There will be a grey area, it just won't include Google at least.

from leaflet-providers.

Are we gonna make a CONTRIBUTING.md out of this?

from leaflet-providers.

yeah that would make sense

from leaflet-providers.

For the record, ESRI shot me down for using their services.arcgisonline.com basemaps in Leaflet last year. Since then they've released this ESRI-Leaflet thing, which may have come with changes to TOS. Basically they cited the same restrictions in their remarkably hard to find TOS as Google has -- you can't use any APIs other than theirs to access their maps.

The links I had last year now 404, but said that you may not

Provide others with access to Web Services through non-Esri software;

Here's the doc they pointed me at on the Wayback Machine

from leaflet-providers.

interesting...ping @scw

from leaflet-providers.

Trying to find out here also...
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/88377-Terms-of-Use-for-http-services.arcgisonline.com-ArcGIS-rest-services?p=312664#post312664

from leaflet-providers.

considering esriuc is going on right now I doubt we'll be hearing back all that soon

from leaflet-providers.

This helps: http://downloads2.esri.com/ArcGISOnline/docs/tou_summary.pdf

Because of...

UNDER THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS

• Use with Esri software, and comply with its terms of use.

... I worry that it still isn't legit.

from leaflet-providers.

Hey guys, looking into this. I'll get back to you once I can, though it may take a little while due to the UC as @calvinmetcalf had mentioned.

from leaflet-providers.

I'm looking into this right now. With UC going on it might have to wait until early next week. I have a few emails out and will update here and in Esri Leaflet when I know.

from leaflet-providers.

Thanks Patrick!

from leaflet-providers.

yes thanks guys

from leaflet-providers.

Ok here is the full story on using Esri tiles I wanted to wait until we launched our new free development and testing accounts which make the whole thing make much more sense.

I asked around and the PDF linked to early is really old and is going to get an overhaul soon and should be ignored.

To use Esri tiles you should do a few things...

• Have an ArcGIS Online Account, we now a free account you can use while building applications https://developers.arcgis.com/en/plans/. If you are using our tiles (or any service) in a commercial application you MUST upgrade to a paid account.
• Don't remove the Esri logo or other attributions, I assume this means you have to properly attribute, which is tricky since maps like the topographic map have hundreds of attributions. I'm doing this in Esri Leaflet https://github.com/Esri/esri-leaflet/blob/master/src/Layers/BasemapLayer.js
• Tell us if you use or plan to have more then 1 million map views (we don't actually record map view right now but might in the future, use the honor system)

Most of these come out of the brand new [Terms and Conditions FAQ page](https://developers.arcgis.com/en/terms/faq/ page) there is also a "plain english terms and conditions" page that shows the terms side by side with a summary of what the legal terms mean.

As far as what this means for Leaflet Providers you would just have to handle attribution properly. This probably means showing the "Powered by Esri" logo and the groups that contributed to the current view of the map. the way this works in Esri Leaftet us on every map move I loop over an array of contributors of check to see which ones are inside the current map view and update the attribution. You can take a look at the source for L.Esri.BasemapLayer to see how it works.

If you guys want I could adapt the dynamic attribution code I did for Esri Leaflet and issue a pull request. But that would actually require a new class that extends L.TileLayer.

Another solution is I could make an Esri Leaflet build that is JUST L.esri.BasemapLayer which people can use if they meet all the other conditions (have an account) and just want to use Esri tiles in Leaflet.

What do you guys want to do?

from leaflet-providers.

I'm still a little confused by these two sentences:

If you want to use non-Esri developer tools to build an app that uses our online services, you must have a paid subscription to our online services.

Generally, if you are not planning to monetize your app, say by charging a fee or by embedding revenue generating advertising in your app, you can make your app available to just about anyone.

If I am not planning to monetize my app that uses ESRI base layers (leaflet-providers, or esri-leaflet for example), do I need to a paid ArcGIS Online subscription in order to share my app with anyone?

Does esri-leaflet count as an "ESRI developer tool" so that if I use it to build my app, I do not need an ArcGIS Online subscription?

It may also be beneficial to see this discussion in the official ArcGIS forum. I have a thread started here: http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/88377-Terms-of-Use-for-http-services.arcgisonline.com-ArcGIS-rest-services?p=312664

from leaflet-providers.

Based on the information Patrick provided above, I am under the impression that if you are not planning on monetizing your app it is sufficient to create a free ArcGIS Online subscription (whether you use our esri-leaflet plugin or a different API) as long as you make sure to include the Esri logo and attribute the tiles properly.

from leaflet-providers.

@mourner @calvinmetcalf @rclark An update on this, I'm working with some people in legal on this we should have some more clarification this week.

from leaflet-providers.

thanks for the update @patrickarlt

from leaflet-providers.

@patrickarlt any news on this?

from leaflet-providers.

I have good news! This problematic section that @rclark found about third party development tools has been removed from the terms of service. So you are now free to use any third party tools to develop applications Esri services no matter what plan or account type you have.

There is a caveat to this though as stated now in the Terms of Service FAQ/ If you use third party tools and have a free plan you must add an attribution that you are using services from Esri. (2nd question)

If you are using 3rd Party development tools, you must include attribution acknowledging that your app is using online services provided by Esri

This restriction does not exist if you have a paid plan (See the 5th question).

Before someone asks I have asked the legal team to define what counts as attribution. I'll update this again when I hear back from them. But for now I think a link like "Tiles from Esri" or "Geocoding powered by Esri" and a link to developers.arcgis.com, arcgis.com or esri.com should be ok.

/cc @calvinmetcalf and @mourner.

from leaflet-providers.

@patrickarlt This is good news! Thanks for your work getting this ironed out. Just one more ambiguity:

This seems to suggest that I need a paid ArcGIS Online subscription if I want to go live with a not-for-profit site that I developed while using a free development and testing account. Am I misreading that?

from leaflet-providers.

@rclark That definitely is misleading. The FAQ attempts to summarize a very big document into very small parts.

Im fairly certain that is overridden by this sentence from the "plain English" version of the Terms.

Development and Testing Plans are generally intended for developing and testing your applications for ArcGIS Online. However, you can also make your applications powered by your Development and Testing Plan available to the public, you don’t monetize your application in any way, and you don’t use it for the benefit of a business or government agency.

and this

Generally, if you are not planning to monetize your app, say by charging a fee or by embedding revenue generating advertising in your app, you can make your app available to just about anyone.

So I would way you can launch your app since you are not generating any revenue from it.

from leaflet-providers.

That's helpful. To summarize then, the caveats are that

• you have a free ArcGIS Online Development and Testing account
• you properly attribute esri on your site
• your site does not generate revenue
• you're not making the site at work or for the government

from leaflet-providers.

The confusing sentence that @rclark noted is still on the FAQ page but I've been told that the wording from the actual terms does override whatever the FAQ so my above summary is accurate. I'm still working on trying to get the wording on the FAQ page changed to be less ambiguous.

Does this answer the question about using the Esri base maps?

I think it is would be fine to continue including the Esri tiles as long as a note is added to https://github.com/leaflet-extras/leaflet-providers#providers-requiring-registration about using the Esri tiles similar to other providers.

Would you guys like a pull request?

from leaflet-providers.

Sure!

from leaflet-providers.

I changed the ESRI url's to use https, seems to work -- is using the https feeds still supported in this context by ESRI?

from leaflet-providers.

@enunciat Esri basemap tiles are definitely hosted/supported both via http and https.

from leaflet-providers.

@jgravois good to hear, thanks

from leaflet-providers.