[OSM-legal-talk] 'Fair Use'

[Peter Miller]

On 12 Jan 2009, at 13:50, Rob Myers wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 1:37 PM, Peter Miller <peter.miller at itoworld.com 
> > wrote:
>
>> What information can we use from these sources under 'fair use'  
>> rules?
>
> Under English & Welsh or European law, none. There's no Fair Use  
> exception here.
>

There does however appear to be something in the UK about 'fair  
dealing'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing#Fair_dealing_in_the_United_Kingdom

It seems a possible justification, but it may be a bit weak.


> Under American law, whatever you can get away with in court.
>

So what if someone in the US adds some data from a UN OCHA map to a  
global CCBYSA project!

>> I have already annotated the map of Rafah with some additional Suburb
>> names taken from an OCHA map citing 'UN OCHA - fair use' as the
>> source. To what extent can we add additional content from these
>> sources without getting approval from the copyright holder?
>
> There can be no certainty unfortunately.
>

So what about a map from UNOCHA that makes no claim of copyright?

>> The
>> wikipedia article gives general guidance on this.
>
> Yes following the Wikipedia guidelines is probably the best way of
> handling this.
>
> It might also be worthwhile contacting the UN (for example) and
> getting agreement that copying the names doesn't break their
> copyright.
>

We are asking for permission in parallel, however we are not hopeful  
about getting a quick response.


>> Do people have an opinion what level of use would be acceptable?
>
> s/use/risk/ . ;-)
>
>> Should we create a 'fair use' page on the wiki and spell out our
>> conclusions?
>
> Yes.
>
> I personally would advise against using Fair Use as a justification
> for anything going into OSM though. Try asserting that the facts
> aren't copyrightable instead (I know that's it's own can of worms, and
> IANAL, TINLA). I am a proponent of Fair Use, I just don't think it's a
> good match for community projects with lots of downstream users.
>

Oh, so possibly we claim fair use and/or database directive whichever  
is applicable! I do get the message that we should generally not use  
this approach.



Regards,



Peter


> - Rob.
>
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