Maps - Terms of use

[JamesBourne]

Are there any restrictions on the use of Maps produced by PowerBI/PowerMaps in reports supplied to clients?

For instance: we might want to include a map in an HTML, Excel, PDF or Powerpoint file that we supply to clients as part of a subscription service that they pay for i.e. not available to the general public but behind a paywall.

There are terms of use for Bing maps: https://www.microsoft.com/maps/assets/docs/terms.aspx, which seem to make it clear that you cannot use them within that context (see SCOPE OF PERMITTED USE). But I cannot find anything that makes it clear if those same restrictions apply to PowerBI/PowerMap produced content?

[Greg_Deckler]

Well, I am not a lawyer and I do not play one on TV but I do not see anything in the Power BI terms of service that would prevent you from doing what you want to do.

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/terms-of-service/

Power BI does use Bing Maps to geocode data so not sure if you would fall under their terms of service. In general, I doubt that the terms of service were meant to pertain to what you are doing. I believe that the terms for Bing Maps were intended to prevent someone from utilizing Bing Maps in such a way that it was used in the background and then resold as a service but who really knows. So, for example, create a map, PDF it and then resell that map 100,000 times but there is only one "hit" to the Bing Maps service. In that circumstance, Microsoft is going to really want someone to pay for a subscription to the Bing Maps service.

[JamesBourne]

Thanks, the Power BI terms don't seem to have anything about disemination to third parties so I think we can assume it's ok to use the software for those purposes - just like you would use Excel to produce a spreadsheet.

However, you mention that Bing Maps is used for geocoding, which may fall under the terms of use, but there are also maps being produced with Bing maps as the base map (actually originally Here/Navtech maps). It would be good to know if they come under the terms of use - nowhere seems to mention this except under the general Bing maps terms which, as you say, is mainly aimed at interactive web map usage.

Google maps have made it clear to us in the past that the use of their base maps in this way is limited - you can use it in a proposal or presentation to clients (as long as it is part of wider report and not just about Google mapping) and can even email it to clients but as soon as you want to put it behind a paid for web service (even as static excel/pdf files) they want some money!

Can anyone else contribute to this?