[OSM-talk] Data copied from Google Maps

[vegard at engen.priv.no]

On Tue, Nov 06, 2012 at 09:58:11AM +0100, Vladimir Vyskocil wrote:
> On 5 nov. 2012, at 23:39, Cartinus <cartinus at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> 
> > Copyright has absolutely nothing to do with this at all. All arguments
> > people use in this this discussion in relation to copyright are just a
> > smokescreen to try to get their way.
> > 
> > When viewing Google StreetView you are using a service from Google. The
> > rules in relation to that, are the rules for business transactions, not
> > those of copyright.
> > 
> > Just like Openstreetmap has rules that say you are not allowed to scrape
> > tiles from our tileserver, Google has rules that say when you are
> > allowed to use their services.
> 
> Yes and they say I'm not allowed to copy all or parts of the provided material (images,...) and also that I can't make derivative work. When I interpret what I can see in Street View photos and write it down I'm doing neither of these ! 

I'm sorry, but this statememt is just plain wrong in regards to OSM.

When (and I say when) we get good enough that we are the default map to
be used in online services, we want to be absolutely sure that neither
Google or other sources of information (that we are not sure that we are
allowed to use) can come and say that "hey, we own large parts of your
database, pay up!".

I'm not speaking about the likelihood of getting sued by Google, but I
thought the general consensus was to be on the safe side when it
comes to copyright questions.

Any wrongfully data will also destroy *my* work, especially if I have
based my work on top of that again. I can guarantee that *I* will
be pissed, not at the Google out there that demands their data removed,
but at the culprit that added it to OSM in the first place.

So anyone who considers adding stuff that is not 100% OK to copy is
destroying the project from within, not helping it.

Period. 
-- 
- Vegard Engen, member of the first RFC1149 implementation team.