[OSM-dev] Paging the tile server admins

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 05/06/11 09:17, NopMap wrote:
> If you design your dedicated map handling system in such a way that it is
> impossible to add and display proper attribution when adding a new map
> source manually, even if you wanted to, that application is clearly
> violating any attribution licence.

Interesting. By the same logic, if I design a map application that lets 
the user input their own tiles URLs *and* lets them input an attribution 
string to go with it, then the user would be in violation of the license 
if he adds the tile URL but not the attribution? Hardly believable.

The attribution requirement of CC-BY-SA is triggered if you distribute 
(publicly perform etc.etc.) the tiles. The *author* of the software 
doesn't distribute or publicly perform any tiles, he just makes a piece 
of software available. The *user* of the software instructs the 
application to retrieve and display the tiles, but only for his own 
consumption and not for distribution or public performance, so the user 
doesn't have to add attribution either.

I don't want to condone what this "Locus" guy does, and certainly 
inciting users to violate our usage policy (and using faked headers 
etc.) is a bad thing. But I cannot see a CC-BY-SA violation.

Bye
Frederik