[OSM-legal-talk] Can feature names be determined from copyrighted data?

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Pavel Zubkou wrote:
> In Belarus maps are an objects of copiright ([1], Article 7.1), but
> "information as such" does not covered by copyright (Article 8.2).

The situation is very similar in many other countries (google for "facts 
are free"). Some countries (notably the EU) have a special database law 
that protects collections of facts as if there was a copyright on the 
collection, even if the individual facts are free; the proposed new ODbL 
is partly based on this concept. Even in those countries where there is 
no such database law, we do not copy names from copyrighted maps because 
we want to be on the safe side.

Of course, if you write to the map provider, citing the legal text and 
asking whether according to this text you have the permission to copy 
names from his map and he responds with something like "as long as you 
copy only facts but not the actual design of my maps that's fine" then 
you are on the safe side.

Bye
Frederik