[OSM-legal-talk] What should be considered legal?

[Matt Amos]

On 10/24/09, Martin Koppenhoefer <dieterdreist at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/10/21 rhn <opstmaac.rhn at porcupinefactory.org>:
>> I'm a mapper for more than a year, and I know a little bit about
>> intellectual property, but some questions have been puzzling me for quite
>> some time.
>>
>> First of them - how much is allowed when referring to proprietary maps? Is
>> it right to look at the street names to see whether I got them right? Or
>> can I compare topology of the streets with the external map? See if I got
>> the village placement right and adjust it?
>
> IMHO (IANAL) you can always compare your map to others, but if the
> don't match, you will not know, who's right, unless you recontroll.

i'd agree - it's OK to compare OSM to proprietary maps and use that to
figure out where needs surveying. but it's not OK to take information
from that proprietary map - if there is a difference then you'll have
to go out and survey the difference.

so (imho) it wouldn't be OK to adjust village placement based on
proprietary maps; if there's a difference you'd have to look at other
allowable sources like Y! aerial imagery or out-of-copyright maps, or
go out and survey it with a GPS.

cheers,

matt