[OSM-legal-talk] decision removing data

[Anthony]

On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 12:41 PM, Rob Myers <rob at robmyers.org> wrote:
> On 08/05/2010 05:09 PM, Anthony wrote:
>>
>> And OSM is more than just geographical data.  A way isn't geographical
>> data.
>
> A way is geographical data. Or possibly geographical metadata. ;-)

I don't think so.  Ways contain geographical data, but they're more
than *just* geographical data.

>> A database on a hard drive *is* in a fixed form.  "Fixed" doesn't mean
>> "can't be edited", at least not in the sense it's used in copyright
>> law.
>
> Yes, this is why I mentioned dance notation.
>
> The fact that the form is fixed on the hard drive is less important than
> that it's fixed as a database or as an image encoding. You don't get
> synchronization rights on source code.

Not sure what you're getting at.

>> So you agree I'm *maybe* right, you're just not sure?  Fine, I'll take it.
>
> I agree that you may be right about ways. I would not however stake OSM on
> my opinion of this (which hasn't changed in some years) without legal
> advice.

Fair enough.  I'm not asking you to.

>> There is selection within a single way.  What nodes to use to represent
>> the way.
>
> That selection is for accuracy, not expression.

Accuracy would be maximized by using as many nodes as possible.
That's not what's being done.  Instead, the creator of the way is
selecting nodes which s/he feels best represents the way.  It may not
be expression in the sense of expressionist art, because the work is
grounded in an attempt to reflect reality, but a work need not be
expressionist to be eligible for copyright.

>> No.  There is no equivalent to Section 114 of the US code
>> (http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#114) for geographical
>> databases or cartographic images.
>
> My point is that they are different fixed forms covered by different aspects
> of copyright law.

Only because copyright law explicitly treats them differently.

In any case, I'm not arguing with you that the copyright on an image
is different from the copyright on a vector description of that image.
 I'm just saying that both are copyrighted.