<html><head></head><body>Note that there is a long tradition of encyclopedias, maps, and other copyrighted sources deliberately including some bogus "facts" as a way of detecting plagiarism. These bogus facts don't exist in real life, only in the copyrighted document, so having them show up in a competing document proves that copying took place.<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On April 2, 2015 5:12:57 PM CDT, Simon Poole <simon@poole.ch> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<pre class="k9mail">Am 02.04.2015 um 05:20 schrieb Russ Nelson:<br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #729fcf; padding-left: 1ex;"> ...<br /> April Fools! Yes, you can. There are many kinds of public domain maps<br /> whose republication needs no license. For example, in the US all maps<br /> published before the magic date, whatever year it is we're up to<br /> now. Maps copyrighted but not renewed. Maps published without a<br /> copyright before 1988. <br /></blockquote>Very true.<br /><br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #729fcf; padding-left: 1ex;"> Maps with insufficient creative content to be<br /> copyrightable.<br /></blockquote><br />They may exist, but are you seriously saying that we (as in individual<br />mappers and the OSM community as a whole) should make that determination?<br /><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex;
border-left: 1px solid #729fcf; padding-left: 1ex;"><br /> There are maps which are canonical sources of facts about the world,<br /> such as a BNSF map naming subdivisions. No one can own a fact about<br /> the world, because it's a fact. Just like you can't patent math. Same<br /> idea. You can copyright a collection of facts. You can copyright the<br /> arrangement of facts. You can copy the presentation of facts. But you<br /> can't copyright the individual facts.</blockquote><br />While is true that you can't own a fact in isolation, the problem is<br />they are rarely presented in that form.<br /><br />Up to now OSM has drawn the line in such a way that stuff that is<br />signposted and is observable on the ground is fair game (with some<br />exceptions, I believe the GR issue is still unsolved). If you are using<br />a collection of facts, be it a list, a map, a file on a computer or<br />whatever, we have to now always taken the, fairly high ground, position<br />that you
either need explicit permission (by agreement, licence or<br />similar) or that the use of the source is clearly not subject to<br />copyright any longer. Forgetting about other rights, regulations etc<br />that may exist for the purpose of this discussion.<br /><br />What you seem to be saying in your above statement, followed by stevea's<br />battle call to actually do so, that wholesale extraction of facts from<br />any source is unproblematic and is something that can be done without<br />further consideration and the net result can be used in OSM globally<br />with no expectation of problems. BTW you live in the country of software<br />patents which -is- essentially patenting math.<br /><br />Alas I suspect you are kidding yourself in a big way.<br /><br />Simon<br /><br /><br /></pre><p style="margin-top: 2.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; border-bottom: 1px solid #000"></p><pre class="k9mail"><hr /><br />Talk-us mailing list<br />Talk-us@openstreetmap.org<br /><a
href="https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us">https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us</a><br /></pre></blockquote></div><br>
-- <br>
John F. Eldredge -- john@jfeldredge.com<br>
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.</body></html>