The basemap most layers are drawn over
Google Maps Platform terms on AI training and derived maps
Much commercial mapping is drawn over a licensed basemap. Google's terms answer the question every map seller meets first: is a layer traced from someone else's map yours to license?
What Google says you may not make
The terms say a customer will not create content based on Google Maps content, and give examples: tracing or digitising roadways, building outlines, utility posts or electrical lines from the satellite base map, and building 3D models from 45 degree imagery.
Source: GIS software data terms
Who owns the rest
As between the parties, Google's terms leave the customer holding the intellectual property in its own application, and Google holding it in the Maps services. Layers you captured yourself are yours; layers drawn from Google's map are not.
Other map APIs say similar things
MapTiler's terms rule out training machine learning algorithms as a commercial derivative of its services, and HERE's platform terms restrict using HERE materials with machine learning or AI systems. Each row on the board shows what the platform says about your own uploads.
Source: GIS software data terms
Before you license a layer
Separate what was surveyed or flown by the firm from what was digitised off a basemap, then check the database and copyright rules on our map copyright page.