Live Search Maps Code of Conduct

Last updated: October 2007

Our content

The maps, imagery, and other data in Live Search Maps are owned by Microsoft and our suppliers. You may not use Live Search Maps for any bulk printing or downloading of imagery or data. We’d be delighted for you to use our Microsoft Virtual Earth API to create your own mashups—please take a look at the "Developers" section later on this page. Please review the "3D Map Tour Video" section below as well.

Code of conduct

Some of the information in this service is provided by end users. We strongly recommend that you verify the information in this service before making final plans. The service should not be used for any purpose that requires exact measurement of distance or direction, or for precision in address location or in the depiction of geographic locating features.

You may not upload, post, transmit, transfer, or distribute, or help third parties distribute, any content (content includes text, images, video, sound, data, information, or software) that:

Incites, advocates, or expresses pornography, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity, hatred, bigotry, racism, or violence.
Misrepresents the source of anything you post, including impersonation of another individual or entity.
Provides or creates links to external sites that violate this code of conduct.
Is intended to harm or exploit any minor (anyone under 18 years old) in any way.
Is designed to solicit or collect personally identifiable information of any minor, including, but not limited to: name, e-mail address, home address, phone number, or the name of his or her school.
Invades anyone's privacy by attempting to publish, collect, harvest, or store private or personally identifiable information, such as passwords, account information, credit card numbers, addresses, or other contact information, without his or her foreknowledge and willing consent.
Is illegal or violates any local and national laws that apply to your location, including but not limited to child pornography, illegal drugs, rights of publicity, copyrighted material, and intellectual property not belonging to you.
Is intended to threaten, stalk, defame, defraud, degrade, victimize, or intimidate an individual or group of individuals for any reason, including age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, ethnic origin, or religion; or is intended to incite or encourage any one else to do so.
Intends to harm or disrupt another user's computer or would allow others to illegally access software or bypass security on web sites or servers, including but not limited to spamming.
Attempts to impersonate a Microsoft employee, agent, manager, or host; another user; or any other person though any means.

User responsibilities

We encourage users not to share information that others could use to harm them, and we encourage parents to be aware of and help exercise control over content posted by and activities of their children to keep them safe online.

Microsoft is not responsible for the content or activities in any user-created collection, business listing, or other material. The decision to view or engage all content is yours, and we advise you to use your judgment.

Microsoft may modify the Live Search Maps code of conduct at any time without prior notice, and we encourage you to periodically review these guidelines to ensure that you are in compliance.

3D Map Tour Video

We encourage you to create a 3D Map Tour video using content from Virtual Earth 3D. As long as you adhere to all of the restrictions in this Code of Conduct, Microsoft grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use and display content from Virtual Earth 3D to create 3D Map Tour videos and to share the videos that you create, strictly for noncommercial and personal use. We are giving you some broad rights to create videos, but we can revoke this limited use license at any time and for any reason.

Developers

If you are a developer who would like to use the Virtual Earth platform for lower-volume applications at no charge, please review the Virtual Earth API SDK terms. If you are a business or developer interested in higher-volume applications, please contact maplic@microsoft.com for information. Unless you have a contract explicitly authorizing it (and without limiting the terms of the Virtual Earth and Microsoft MapPoint license agreements), under no circumstances may you:

Access the underlying map data or photographic imagery other than through documented methods that Microsoft provides to you.
Work around any technical limitations in the API.
Copy, store, archive, or create a database of results from the service.
Sell, lease, or sublicense results or access to the API or the service.
Copy, save, download, distribute, transmit, or in any way manipulate the photographic imagery.
Print the bird’s eye imagery.
Minimize, alter, obscure, or block any portion of the results.

For information about some of our suppliers, see the About page on this website.

Locational usage notes:

Live Search Maps is currently designed for use in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Australia and provides a lower level of detail and accuracy for other geographic areas. The information provided in this service is not to be considered authoritative, and Microsoft recognizes that there are alternate cartographic interpretations other than those shown by the service.