If all you have is a compilation of facts, then yes, people can copy the data points one by one, alter the format slightly, and have a wholly separate work that has no legally recognized parentage. This is why you don&#x27;t see a lot of plain collections of facts for sale.<p>As far as I know, Google Maps is protected from scripts copying the data points out only by its Terms of Use, which the CFAA basically eval()s into law.<p>Google Maps won&#x27;t disappear overnight because they do provide a substantial amount of beneficial proprietary data, like the illustrations and private aerial&#x2F;satellite imagery (imagery from sources like NASA is public domain), their scripts that allow easy embedding, the ability to connect to one&#x27;s Google account, and so forth. But there is no legal protection of the raw data points used to build Google Maps as far as I know.<p>Let me reiterate that I&#x27;m not a lawyer and no one should do anything based on my posts.