[OSM-legal-talk] Tracing from Aerial Imagery

Martijn van Exel mvexel at gmail.com
Fri Aug 1 08:25:46 BST 2008


> Hi,
>
> Question 1 - is that what Ed said?

I believe that is in fact what he has said. It surprised me, because  
it leaves a lot of room for debate, and thats why...

> And question 2 - does it make sense,
> legally?

...I think this could be dangerous waters in a legal sense. I have  
been living in Amsterdam for 18 years, so you could argue that at  
least all the neighborhoods I've lived in, shopped in, visited close  
friends in and went to school in on a regular basis will be very  
familiar to me - which they actually are. This comprises roughly half  
of the city for which I'd for example know any street name just  
looking at an aerial photograph or a blind map. I use this knowledge  
on a day-to-day basis when OpenStreetMapping[1] - but how would this  
be acknowledged in the license Google supposedly has with their aerial  
imagery suppliers?

[1] Of course, for anything I add or modify, I'll have the traces to  
back up that I've been there.

> And question 3 - so I am allowed to trace my house, and my
> neighbour's, and my workplace, and the bakery I visit every morning,  
> and
> my birthplace, and my parent's house...?

This remains a question for me as well.






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