[OSM-legal-talk] attribution of data for use on TV

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

telegee at hushmail.com wrote:
> My question is what type of attribution is appropriate? 

We had a huge discussion about this 2.5 years ago but not a lot has 
changed since, so you might want to read the thread with the misleading 
subject "OSM Layer into Adobe Illustrator",

http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2007-February/011537.html

where a guy from a TV broadcaster inquired about using the Baghdad map 
on-air.

It all boils down to paragraph 4c of the CC-BY-SA license which says:

"You must keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and give the 
Original Author credit reasonable to the medium or means You are 
utilizing..."

The problem is, or at least was for that particular request 2.5 years 
ago, that nobody in OSM can give you a definitive and legally binding 
answer what exactly "reasonable to the medium or means" is.

I think I'm speaking for the majority of contributors when I say that 
having the credits in the credits roll at the end of a TV production is 
perfectly all right (that's the usual place for credits in that medium) 
but the responsiblity rests with you, or the broadcaster, in the end.

> Anyway, I want to do what is 
> right here. So, do I simply attribute in the app and let my TV 
> users know I'm using OpenStreetMap data OR do I need to attribute 
> on-air? I could easily add an OpenStreetMap attribution in the 
> splash screen and about box.

For *you* it is sufficient to tell your clients - in a manner reasonable 
to your medium, i.e. computer software - that you're using OSM data and 
that this comes under the license CC-BY-SA 2.0. That's all that is 
legally required from you. The fact that the data is CC-BY-SA then means 
that your customers, when using the data, must also acknowledge the 
source and specify the license; this, however, is not your 
responsibility but theirs. Of course if you are interested in a healthy 
long-term relationship with your customers you should advise them 
accordingly, lest they get a bollocking from angry OSM contributors (see 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Lacking_proper_attribution) and then 
complain to you about not having been informed.

Bye
Frederik