Map was never free data - I think they started with OSM, but later switched to a proprietary data source (and of course, they are crowdsourcing more data and updates from users)
I'm not sure they even started with OSM. I remember in the very early days I could select the 'bulldozer' icon and add new roads to the maps. People used to ask why the maps weren't as good as OSMs, but the maps got better very quickly because - I suppose - everybody's journeys were added to the maps.
Map was never free data - I think they started with OSM, but later switched to a proprietary data source (and of course, they are crowdsourcing more data and updates from users)