When mapping buildings, I’ll switch between the ESRI and Bing satellite maps, since they both offer different “freshnes” and clarity, depending on the area.

However, when I use my official municipal or regional websites, they have ESRI maps that appear to be quite a bit newer.

Is the licensing different across different ESRI imagery sources, or could I use the more updated one as a guideline?

EDIT: I think I found my answer from the official OpenStreetMap Wiki:

" Esri is a corporate member of the Foundation."

“Esri allowed the usage of Esri World Imagery (and its variants) in OSM mapping, without restrictions and requirements. Even attribution is not legally required.”

This is wonderful news! Having satellite images from only a few months ago, rather than a few years ago, is a game-changer!

So this might have been overly optimistic. There may be additional licensing restrictions on variants outside what’s available in the OSM editor.