> As it is now, your directive uses the local GaImportKmlDirectiveController controllers scope, which itselfs inherits prototypically from it's parent scope (which in turn contains the .map variable)

This is something I'd like to understand. (a) Does the directive use the scope of its controller? (b) Or is the controller injected the directive's scope? I thought (b) was the correct statement. So if the directive has an "isolate" scope, its local controller receives that isolate scope as an argument. But I may be wrong.