[OSM-legal-talk] New contributors and some data sources are not allowed under the CTs but too easy to access.

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Kai Krueger wrote:
> That however does still leave the substantial portion of
> mappers who have ticked the "I declare my edits to be PD" option, which
> surely makes them no longer compatible with these sources. These mappers
> therefore then presumably can not use those sources without being in breach
> of contract or license.

Dunno - according to your logic, a mapper who declares his edits PD 
would not be allowed to edit an object that a non-PD mapper has created 
(because what the PD mapper uploads would be based on a non-PD source).

Personally, I view the "I declare my edits PD" button as reading

"I hereby declare that I will not pursue copyright on any copyrightable 
action I might make in OSM"

which does not mean that all third-party copyright in something I touch 
become automatically void.

388 users have declared their edits to be PD on the Wiki for a long 
time, and I don't think any of them have restricted their editing to PD 
sources exclusively.

> So it seems editors will need to keep track of background image licenses
> anyway and with what they are compatible in order to warn or prevent the
> user in an adequate way.

No, I don't think so.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"