Frequently Asked Questions

How are the maps on mapswire.com licensed?

Nearly all (see below) maps are licensed under a Creative Commons license. The precise license is called Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or CC-BY 4.0. This means, you can use the maps without paying any license fee on any project you like, private or commercial. You may even distribute the maps or edit them and distribute the derived work.

There are three maps on the Public Domain page that are provided under Public Domain. For these maps, you even do not need any attribution.

What license do I have to use for derived work?

The CC-BY 4.0 enforces that the license for your derived work ensures the restrictions of the original work. You just have to give credit to the licensor, in our case to Mapswire.com. And you have to ensure that maps derived from your work, also give credit to Mapswire.com. More about licensing of derived work is in the Creative Commons FAQ.

How do I give credit if I use your maps?

The CC-BY 4.0 license requests to give “appropriate credit” to the licensor. There are several possibilities to do this.

If you use branded maps with the “Mapswire” logo, the logo itself is the attribution. If you’re using non-branded maps, provide a link to https://mapswire.com/ on the page you’re using the map. On any non-www media (eg. smartphone apps, t-shirts, newspaper) just state “mapswire.com” as the licensor in an appropriate manner.

Why do you provide blank maps?

Blank maps are useful for creating your own maps. Downloading a blank map provides you with a great starting point for your own work.