Terms of service

These terms govern use of the Maps for Developers website, tile service and API (the “Service”), operated by Houston IT Developers LLC (“we”, “us”). By using the Service you agree to them. If you are agreeing on behalf of a company, you confirm you have authority to bind it.

Early access

The Service is in early access. Accounts and API keys are issued manually, features may change, and we may adjust limits or plans with notice. If a change materially disadvantages you, tell us and we will work it out rather than hide behind this paragraph.

Accounts and API keys

You are responsible for keeping your API key secret and for all activity carried out with it. Keys belong on your server, not in a public client bundle. Tell us promptly if a key is exposed and we will issue a replacement.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Systematically download, mirror or redistribute our tile archives in bulk, or attempt to circumvent the signed-token gateway or the per-client byte budget. If you have a legitimate need for bulk access, ask — we will arrange it.
• Resell or sublicense the data as a competing data product.
• Use the Service to violate any law, or to build anything that harasses, endangers or unlawfully surveils an individual.
• Use parcel or ownership data to make decisions about a person's eligibility for credit, insurance, housing or employment. Our data is not a consumer report and we are not a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
• Probe, load-test or attack the infrastructure without our written agreement.

We may suspend access for a serious or repeated breach. Where it is reasonable to do so, we will contact you first.

Data, sources and attribution

Much of what we serve derives from public sources — among them OpenStreetMap, Protomaps, FEMA, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, the USGS, and individual state and county cadastral offices. Those sources carry their own licences and attribution requirements, and your use must respect them.

In particular, applications displaying our basemap must retain attribution to OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0). Do not remove attribution controls from the map.

Parcel and other public-record data is provided as published by the relevant authority. It is not a survey, not a title search, and not legal advice about a boundary. Do not rely on it as the sole basis for a transaction, a legal position, or anything else where being wrong is expensive.

Your content

Anything you send us — enquiries, feedback, sample data — stays yours. You grant us only the licence needed to provide and support the Service. If you send us a suggestion, we may act on it without owing you anything for it.

Availability

We work to keep the Service available and will tell you honestly when it is not. We do not offer a contractual uptime commitment on the published plans; a written SLA can be negotiated on an Enterprise agreement.

Fees

Paid plans are billed monthly in advance and may be cancelled at the end of a billing period. Fees are exclusive of taxes, which you are responsible for. Exceeding a plan limit is a conversation, not an automatic overage charge.

Warranties and liability

The Service and the data are provided “as is”, without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and accuracy of the underlying public records.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our aggregate liability arising out of the Service is limited to the fees you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, and we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for lost profits or data. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions, in which case they apply only to the extent permitted.

Indemnity

You will defend and indemnify us against third-party claims arising from your use of the Service in breach of these terms or of the upstream data licences described above.

Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may terminate for material breach of these terms, or discontinue the Service with reasonable notice and a pro-rata refund of any prepaid fees. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination — fees owed, warranties, liability, indemnity, governing law — do.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms; the date at the top will change. For material changes affecting paid plans we will give reasonable notice. Continued use after that means you accept the revised terms.

General

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and the state and federal courts located in Harris County, Texas have exclusive jurisdiction. If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest stays in force. You may not assign these terms without our consent; we may assign them to a successor in connection with a merger or sale of the business. Neither party is liable for delay caused by events beyond its reasonable control. These terms, together with the privacy policy, are the entire agreement between us on this subject and supersede any prior discussions. Notices to you may be sent to the email address on your account; notices to us go through the contact form.

Contact

Questions about these terms go through the contact form.