[OSM-legal-talk] OpenStreetMap copyright credits

Tobias Wendorff tobias.wendorff at tu-dortmund.de
Tue Feb 15 00:24:55 GMT 2011


Hi there,

I've got a question concerning credits to give when using
OpenStreetMap tiles or data.

A qoute from English "Legal FAQ" [1]:
1. "(c) OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC-BY-SA" (tiles)
2. "Map data (c) OpenStreetMap (and) contributors, CC-BY-SA" (data)

The German FAQ translates the first point into "(c) 'OpenStreetMap'
(und) Mitwirkende". The meaning of "Mitwirkende" is "active
participants" (direct translation *is* contributors).

And now, I've got a problem: According to this website [3],
contributors are equated to donators of data and not as members
of OpenStreetMap.

Now, why are there two groups?
1. OpenStreetMap (the people / the community) *and*
2. contributors

Okay, the "and" is in brackets only, but who added it and why?
I think, traditional credits were "OpenStreetMap contributors".
That's much better, since it applies to the whole community,
but [3] gives a complete different meaning...

 From my point of view, these credits would be okay:
1. [Map data] (C) OpenStreetMap community, CC-BY-SA 2.0
2. [Map data] (C) OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA 2.0
3. [Map data] (C) OpenStreetMap participants, CC-BY-SA 2.0

Oh, I also want to mention that "(c)" is the wrong transliteration
for the copyright-sign - the right one is "(C)" :-)

Best regards,
Tobias

references:
[1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Legal_FAQ
[2] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/DE:Legal_FAQ
[3] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Contributors



More information about the legal-talk mailing list