"Google had this to say about the OpenStreetMap incident: 'The two people who made these changes were contractors acting on their own behalf while on the Google network. They are no longer working on Google projects.'

"And a source familiar with Google's actions said the two were terminated because they used Google's network for unauthorized activity, which is against Google's rules, not because of what they actually did on their own initiative."

So yes, they were people working for Google. But they weren't doing this for Google, if that's clear. They weren't "Google-run computers"; they were Google-briefly-employed staff.

"The official blog of Open Street Map reports tonight that someone at a range of Google IP addresses in India has been editing the collaboratively made map of the world in some very unhelpful ways, like moving and deleting information and reversing the direction of one-way streets on the map.

"Google sent the following statement to ReadWriteWeb on Tuesday morning. 'The two people who made these changes were contractors acting on their own behalf while on the Google network. They are no longer working on Google projects.'"

Google's Augean department has been busy again, it seems. What part of "don't be evil" is so hard to understand, whether for staff or a contractor?