[OSM-legal-talk] Please enable commercial use

[Gervase Markham]

Sebastian Spaeth wrote:
> Gervase Markham wrote:
>> The notion of derivative works is a fairly well defined one under 
>> copyright law. Many, many companies deal with this concept every day.
> 
> -Right, so having an overlay with proprietary data on an OSM map is 
> derived? 

If you made the overlay with reference to the underlying map, yes. If 
not, no.

> As a separate layer? If it's merged in one image instead, is it 
> then derived?

Yes, the combined work is derived.

> -If I print a book with pretty OSM maps which are used to describe 
> bicycle routes. Is the map figure derived, the route description or the 
> book?

If the map figure was made using OSM data, it's derived. If the route 
description was made with reference to the map (rather than by, say, 
cycling the route), then it's derived. The book is not derived.

The principle isn't complicated. If you use the SA data to make your 
data, it's derived. If not, it isn't.

> -If I print an OSM map in my book, do I derive work from OSM and 
> attribute them? Or do I derive from the works of 10,000 contributors and 
> have to print a 200 page appendix to my 10page leaflet, naming all 
> contributors?

It depends what the licence says. The point has been made the CC-BY-SA 
is unclear in this respect; this is one of the reasons a licence change 
has been proposed.

> -If I am a company in Togo, does copyright law from the US or Togo 
> apply? As a foreign company, would I dare to get myself into possible 
> trouble as some OSM contributor in Utah sues me there?

Copyright law from Togo applies in Togo. This is true whatever your 
licensing terms are. (For example, some countries do not have such a 
thing as a public domain, which requires special steps for those countries.)

Gerv