[OSM-legal-talk] [OSM-talk] ODbL vs CC-by-SA pros and cons

[Francis Davey]

On 1 September 2010 22:41, Anthony <osm at inbox.org> wrote:
>
> I'm not even sure what maps as images means.  If a map is described in
> XML (say, as an svg file), would that file be a "map as an image"?
> Let's assume any of the individually copyrightable graphics (like
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/images/e/ef/Aeroway-helipad.png and
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/images/c/cd/Bierkrug32x32.png) were
> omitted or placed in a different file.  Just the lines
> (dashed/dotted/etc), the filled areas (colors or patterns), and the
> text were included.
>
> Is OSM a project to make maps, or a project to collect factual data
> about the world?

"maps" are expressly treated as "artistic works" by s.4(2)(a) of the
Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (to give a UK perspective).
Whether some or all of the OSM is a "map" is another question - which
I guess is the one you are asking.

The point being that  "image" is not a UK copyright category, the main
category is "artistic work" of which a "graphic work" is a subcategory
one member of which is a "map". Section 10 of the (Australian)
Copyright Act 1968 does the same job (where the categories are
"artistic work"/"drawing" which includes "map"). The Australians
inherit their copyright law from the same source as we do in the UK
and there is still considerable cross-fertilisation of ideas (the High
Court of Australia being particularly respected here).

I could go on but it would bore..... I just wanted to make the point
that "images" isn't a category much used in copyright definitions,
unless referring to photographs/films and so on where the "image" is a
recording of light - which a map isn't except indirectly.

There's a conflict of authority in the UK over whether a work can
belong to several categories at once. I don't mean whether a work can
have elements that could be more than one class of work (like pictures
in a book) but where the same creative content is both. For example a
circuit diagram has been held to be a literary work (because it is
written in the language of an electrical engineer) but also an
artistic work at the same time.

So, maybe something can be a map, a copyrightable database and a (sui
generis right) database at the same time. Who knows.

Sorry, its late and I am meandering a bit. The short point is: none of
this is even slightly unproblematic.

-- 
Francis Davey