This wiki page serves as the central authority on the incorporation of external / third-party data into the Waze map for Australia and its jurisdictions. This policy needs to be read in whole.
General Policy
Usage of any external copyrighted source of information, in order to add information to the Waze database or maps, is not allowed. External copyright information includes any online or printed map information that is not provided by Waze through the Waze Map Editor interface.[1]
With the acquisition of Waze by Google, Inc., changes have been made to the Waze Map Editor to include updated aerial and street view images from Google. These are considered internal sources and completely acceptable to be used in creating map information for Waze. Google's terms of use restricts use of their map information to specific conditions and Waze has the proper licensing to use what you see inside the Waze Map Editor, but nothing else.[1]
This is to be read in conjunction with Waze Terms of Service at https://www.waze.com/legal/tos, which includes the Waze Copyright policy at https://www.waze.com/en-GB/legal/copyright.
Exceptions
Australia’s country management has been able to secure exceptions to the general policy, after careful vetting and approval through Waze Community Managers and Waze legal team, for the use of the following data sources to be used under creative commons licence with attribution. Such attribution appears at https://www.waze.com/legal/notices and in the Waze app under Settings > About.
- ACT Government GeoHub, ACT Road Centrelines. licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
- The NSW Base Map web service, Spatial Services, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence, which includes disclaimers of warranties.
- Natural Resource Maps, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
- South Australian Government Data Directory, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
- National or State Highway and Arterial Roads plus Feeder Roads plus Local plus Access Roads plus VTs, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence.
- MapShareVic by Victoria State Government, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, which includes disclaimers of warranties.
- OpenData/RoadAssets DataPortal, Main Roads WA licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
- Queensland Government Guide to Queensland Roads, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
- Administrative Boundaries ©PSMA Australia Limited licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).
In addition, publicly available data on road closures, particularly in the interest of public safety, can be used per written communication from Waze Community Managers in Feb 2019 (see discussion page).
It is incredibly important to note that the above data sources also use third-party data sources to complement their own data, and to assist in usability and presentation. Absolutely no permission is granted to Waze editors to use such copyrighted third-party data sources.
Please see subsequent wiki pages on how to use these data sources safely.
Policy Violations
Violations put the Waze maps under danger of being forced to revert all changes done to the map in your area / country. If any user were to do such a thing, it would taint all the work that person did on the maps and Waze would need to reverse out all those edits. There could also be other adverse effects.[1]
Waze has already had to remove all the maps for Chile, and other South American countries because the source of the map data was not properly licensed (not the result of any Waze action).[1]
Waze may deny or cancel any individual use of the Website, or terminate your user account, if Waze determines in its sole discretion that you are a repeat infringer. A repeat infringer is a user who has been notified of infringing activity more than once or a user that his or her uploaded material was removed from the Website more than once. Waze may decide, at its sole discretion, that a sufficient reason exists for the immediate termination of your account for any reason, at any time. In these cases Waze may terminate your account immediately. Waze may notify you that it canceled your account by sending a message to the e-mail address that you provided during the registration process. Such notification will come into effect immediately.[2]