[OSM-legal-talk] Fwd: Using OSM material for our online tool

[Richard Fairhurst]

Ole Brandenburg wrote:
> I would be thankful if someone can point me in the right direction. 
> We plan to use the OSM API for our map tool (at stepmap.de). 
> We currently have a list of roughly 1,500 pre-defined maps and 
> a zoom-feature that enables users to create their own map/region. 
> The OSM maps would be a great addition because of the detailed 
> city and regional data. We would like to enable our users to 
> access part of the OSM material and therefore plan to make use 
> of the OSM API.

Great that you're thinking of using OSM data.

I would, however, counsel you very strongly to investigate alternatives to
the API.

OpenStreetMap aims to create free geographic data and make it available for
others to use. But we are a non-profit, volunteer-funded organisation and
can't maintain free, unlimited server resources for everyone.

Our servers, including the API, are principally provided for the benefit of
those editing the data. Any other usage may be restricted or banned
entirely. API services may be modified or withdrawn with minimal notice.

Instead, you are encouraged to download a dump of our data, and host it
yourself on your own servers (whether physical or something such as an
Amazon EC2 instance). If this isn't convenient, you may like to engage a
third-party company to provide this service for you. Geofabrik and CloudMade
are two well-known companies in this field.

The full data dump can be downloaded from http://planet.openstreetmap.org/ .
Smaller excerpts for particular countries and regions are available from
other sites (e.g. geofabrik.de). The formal Terms of Use for the API are
linked from http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright .

cheers
Richard
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