<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Mar 13, 2020, 03:16 by bmay@mapwise.com:<br></div><blockquote class="tutanota_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid #93A3B8; padding-left: 10px; margin-left: 5px;"><div>On 3/12/2020 7:30 PM, Greg Troxel wrote:<br></div><blockquote><div>Brian May <bmay@mapwise.com> writes:<br></div><blockquote><div>We (OSM-US) should really have a state by state guide on open records<br></div><div>laws per state. That would make the "license check" process<br></div><div>easier. Look up the state, get an answer. At least a quick answer to<br></div><div>start from.<br></div></blockquote><div>Agreed in principle, but I think "open records" is off base. The real<br></div><div>issue is copyright, not whether we have a legal right to demand map data<br></div><div>held by the government.<br></div></blockquote><div>No, its not off base. Here's a reference for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microdecisions,_Inc._v._Skinner<br></div></blockquote><div>This decision appears to be about Florida specific copyright law. That makes <br></div><div>Florida public records to be ineligible for copyright, unless law makes exceptions.<br></div><div><br></div><div>"The real issue is copyright, not whether we have a legal right to demand map data <br></div><div>held by the government." is true. Though apparently in Florida legal right to demand<br></div><div>data directly affects its copyright status (unless exempt by other law).<br></div><div><br></div><div>There is plenty of cases where data is available and copyrighted using licence<br></div><div>incompatible with OSM.<br></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="tutanota_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid #93A3B8; padding-left: 10px; margin-left: 5px;"><blockquote><div>Yes, but for the Massachusetts page (where I'm reasonably familiar with<br></div><div>the rules, having been subjected to mandatory trainign), it does not<br></div><div>mention copyright at all that I noticed.<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>This is the grey area and sounds like up for debate. However, as I understand it, the omission of copyright assertion is a waiving of copyright assertion. I am informed by the Microdecisions vs. Skinner case:<br></div><div><br></div><div>"Additionally, the Court confirmed "Florida's Constitution and its statutes do not permit public records to be copyrighted unless the legislature specifically states they can be."<br></div></blockquote><div>Not a lawyer, but Florida's Constitution rule is unlikely to apply in Massachusetts.<br></div><blockquote class="tutanota_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid #93A3B8; padding-left: 10px; margin-left: 5px;"><div>So are you saying since MA public records laws do not specifically state that agencies can copyright data, that towns default to everything is copyrighted?<br></div></blockquote><div>Yes, unless they have law saying otherwise (like law that you apparently found for in Florida,<br></div><div>though note that it may be changed since that court case - it was 16 years ago and law could<br></div><div>be changed before court case completed).<br></div><blockquote class="tutanota_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid #93A3B8; padding-left: 10px; margin-left: 5px;"><div>Grabbing, aka writing code to extract data from a server. There has been previous discussion on this topic, specifically regarding OpenAddresses. I'm pretty sure they concluded copying data from a government server that is publicly exposed to the Internet means any copyrighting has been waived. That could be wrong, I don't know. Google is an obvious case as are most private companies. We're talking governments here.<br></div></blockquote><div>"government server that is publicly exposed to the Internet means any copyrighting has been waived"<br></div><div>[ciatation needed]<br></div><div><br></div><div>AFAIK it is not how copyright works. Maybe it got confused with federal government work,<br></div><div>where data is in public domain and main problem is getting access to data?<br></div><blockquote class="tutanota_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid #93A3B8; padding-left: 10px; margin-left: 5px;"><div>We should probably move this discussion to imports-us, since its US specific - agree?<br></div></blockquote><div>It seems perfectly fine also here, at least I have no trouble with it.<br></div><div>Not sure whatever my comments (and maybe others who are not subscribed to local import list)<br></div><div>are useful at all but note that I am not subscribed to imports-us.<br></div> </body>
</html>