[OSM-legal-talk] Questions on the Contributors Term

[Michael Collinson]

Hi Nakor,

Here is a quick initial answer.  I'll do a bit 
more research and add to a FAQ and respond 
further, they sound like questions other folks will want to ask.

At 22:57 10/08/2010, Nakor wrote:
>     Hello,
>
>1) What is the exact definition of 
>"copyrightable elements"? Does it mean that the 
>elements has a copyright or does it mean that 
>the element could have a copyright? The reason I 
>am asking is because the French version of 
>paragraph 1. of the contributor terms seems more 
>lazy to me than the English one.

I am just learning about the significance of this 
term myself, so will come back with a careful answer.


>2) Where does PD data (mainly TIGER, NHS, NPS, 
>NAIP imagery, USGS imagery) fall with regards to 
>contributor terms, specifically "You have 
>**explicit** permission from the rights holder 
>to submit the Contents and grant the licence below"?'

The general answer is that PD licenses, and 
specifically the terms under which US government 
releases data, allow any use. That gives you 
explicit permission to submit the data.

I think it would be good though if we developed a 
page which lists "OK" sources and a reference to 
their license.  Help is welcome. Tracing back the 
license on US government pages can be time 
consuming and difficult for us non-lawyers to 
understand.  TIGER,  for instance,

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/faq.html#38

points to:

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#105

which says:

"§ 105. Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works37

Copyright protection under this title is not 
available for any work of the United States 
Government, but the United States Government is 
not precluded from receiving and holding 
copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise."



>3) same as 2) for tracing from Toporama WMS 
>(http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Toporama_WMS)

Please would one of our Canadian bretheren add an 
answer to this directly on the wiki page?  Richard?!


>4) same as 2) for tracing from Yahoo imagery

The OpenStreetMap project received explicit 
verbal consent to trace Yahoo imagery provided 
that the actual image tiles are not downloaded 
permanently on to any computer.  Therefore you 
have explicit permission to submit the data.


>Sorry if 2, 3, 4 have already been answered. In 
>that case please direct me to a place where that would be clearly explained.
>
>   Thanks in advance,
>
>N.