[OSM-legal-talk] Can feature names be determined from copyrighted data?

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Pavel Zubkou wrote:
> Can I look at
> *copyrighted* map for a name of lake that is placed at about 10km
> northen from city X?

Generally not. We have lots of areas in OSM where data has been legally 
traced from Yahoo aerial imagery but where we're missing road names - 
precisely because we must not copy them from copyrighted material.

This is a gray area, legally speaking, but we tend to be strict and 
recommend not using copyrighted maps at all. An exception to this, 
although not codified anywhere, is where data can be reasonably expected 
to be part of your personal life. For example if you have canoed on that 
lake and map it later, but find that you have forgotten its name, it is 
ok to look it up. Or you actually were there and still remember the name 
but you only read the name in a travel book that you had on you. 
(Otherwise half of the street names in my area, which I know by hard, 
would be illegal to enter into OSM because I ultimately read them on a 
copyrighted map.)

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"