It seems to me that QGroundControl violates Google’s (and probably Bing’s) TOS. According to Google’s TOS:
Can I access the Maps and Satellite images directly?
You may not access the maps or satellite images through any mechanism besides the Google Maps Platform (such as the creation of your own mapping API or the use of a bulk tile download script). Your application’s access to the tiles will be blocked if it accesses them outside of the Google Maps Platform. See the Google Maps Platform Terms of Service for more details.
It seems to me this is exactly what’s being done in GoogleMapProvider.cpp. Is there a chance that google maps functionality could be removed in the future?