[OSM-legal-talk] ODbL, CTs and tracing GPS tracks

[Peter Millar]

For some of us, our tracks a works of art; at least artful.

Certainly, Jeremy Wood thinks so: <http://www.gpsdrawing.com/maps/traverse-me/prints.html>

-- 
Peter Millar (sherbourne)

----- "80n" <80n80n at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 8:58 AM, Jukka Rahkonen <
> jukka.rahkonen at latuviitta.fi> wrote:
> 
> > TimSC <mapping at ...> writes:
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > Apologies if this has been raised before, but I was wondering
> about GPS
> > > track data and licenses. Presumably we are using public GPS trace
> data
> > > under CC-BY-SA. By the way, it would be helpful to clarify that on
> the
> > > wiki. I'll ignore the problem of tracing other people's tracks and
> the
> > > resulting relicensing issues. At the moment, I am considering how
> GPS
> > > tracks work with the CT and ODbL (assuming they too will be
> relicensed).
> >
> > I have understood that uploaded GPS track logs that we have now are
> > effectively public domain. They are facts (even they do not allways
> > tell the truth) and they miss all the creativity so they are not
> > copyrightable.
> >
> 
> Is this a correct understanding of what a fact is, from a legal point
> of
> view?
> 
> A telephone number is a fact in the sense that it is it's own
> identity.  A
> copy will be identical.  And this seems to be the basis of much US
> case law
> in this area.  On the other hand GPS tracks are made up of
> information, but
> they are samples of a paths and no two sets of GPS tracks will ever
> be
> identical.  The stuff of GPS tracks is very different from the stuff
> of
> telephone numbers.
> 
> Before using the "GPS tracks are facts" meme we really should have a
> better
> understanding of what constitutes a fact, in legal terms.
> 
> 
> 
> >  Everybody can use at least individual tracks for any purpose. At
> the
> > moment only OSM map data are under CC-BY-SA but track logs are free
> facts.
> > Anybody can download the original track logs, trace from them and
> create a
> > commercial or public domain map from those.
> >
> > I believe that after the possible license change there would not be
> any
> > difference between GPS track logs and other kind of contributions
> and they
> > would all be covered by ODbL and contributor terms.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > legal-talk at openstreetmap.org
> > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/legal-talk
> >
> 
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