[OSM-legal-talk] Okay to trace from public-domain USGS DOQs?
Russ Nelson
russ at cloudmade.com
Wed Feb 11 23:40:48 GMT 2009
On Feb 11, 2009, at 5:25 PM, Andy Allan wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 8:01 PM, Russ Nelson <russ at cloudmade.com>
> wrote:
>> Is it okay to trace into OSM from the public-domain USGS Topographic
>> and DOQ (Digital Orthographic Quads) aerial imagery? I think the
>> answer there should be clearly "yes".
>
> IS yes, or SHOULD BE yes?
For that question, the answer IS yes period full stop. Otherwise we
insert the brain probe and test for sanity.
That's why I asked two questions. If you get a GeoTIFF directly from
the USGS, and make it available by a WMS, there is also no question
that the answer is "yes". It seems to me implausible that accessing
the same data from a different source should be legally different
under copyright law. I've never heard anybody allege that Microsoft
is inserting Easter Eggs; without them, there is no creativity and no
copyright.
> I would suggest either getting confirmation
> from terraservice.net (if their Ts&Cs aren't clear, then ask someone)
Working on it. Their T&C are the standard Microsoft copyright:
derivative works prohibited. But that doesn't matter; copyright law
prohibits derivative works. If you think there is a copyright in the
absence of any detectable creativity, then a license or waiver of
copyright is needed.
One possible solution is to get a legal opinion (which costs money, of
course), and mark edits traced from terraservice. If there's a
lawsuit, you go to the judge, show the legal opinion, claim innocent
infringement, and purge the database of edits derived from
terraservice. No penalty beyond the loss of the data.
> or since the original imagery is available from somewhere as PD just
> bypassing any doubt and go upstream.
Haven't been able to find an alternative source. Suggestions
appreciated.
--
Russ Nelson - http://community.cloudmade.com/blog - http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:RussNelson
russ at cloudmade.com - http://openstreetmap.org/user/RussNelson
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