[OSM-dev] Attribution string

Frederik Ramm frederik at remote.org
Mon Jul 16 10:44:57 BST 2012


Hi,

On 07/15/12 22:29, Kai Krueger wrote:
>>> If one chooses to use the "AddTileConfig" or "AddTileMimeConfig"
>>> directives in the Apache site config instead,
>>
>> Which is the usual procedure for Tirex-based systems since they lack a
>> renderd.conf (even though you're right and one could create a
>> renderd.conf without actually using renderd)...
>>
>>> But if someone has better ideas of how to configure this then let me
>>> know.
>>
>> Is there an advantage in having mod_tile generate the JSON response
>> instead of simply putting a file at the root of the tile directory that
>> contains the desired JSON response?
>
> Not really.
>
> But if it is automated, chances are that more people will actually do it
> and make it easier for tools to rely on it. If one is happy with the
> defaults, one doesn't need to do anything and it should just work.

I don't think what you're doing here is right. Attribution is a legal 
requirement and it should never be added automatically as part of what 
you believe to be a sensible default. Anyone who installs your mod_tile 
and does nothing will tell the world that his tiles are CC-BY-SA 2.0 and 
(c) OpenStreetMap even if he never did anything with OSM data.

I suggest to drop auto-generation of this file altogether and instead 
have the user provide a JSON file if he's interested. I am uncomfortable 
with mod_tile auto-publishing parts of the configuration (or worse, 
un-configured default assumptions about who might be the copyright 
holder for the data).

If you do want to continue auto-generating the file then I would suggest 
to put a flag in the Apache config file ("AutoGenerateTileJSON On") and 
when that is set to on and no attribution specified explicitly, then die 
("Attribution must be defined in order to generate TileJSON"). And build 
the Debian packages so that the flag is off by default.

This makes it less likely for someone to publish un-intended metadata.

Bye
Frederik

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





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