[OSM-legal-talk] A license bot that has produced too many errors

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 07/17/2012 01:01 PM, FK270673 at fantasymail.de wrote:
> - agreeing mapper's node disappeared
> http://osm.mapki.com/history/node.php?id=60580009
>
> Version 3 of this node (51.5400973, 9.9564636) was last edited by
> agreeing user Sasude. By removing this precisely located node, an
> intersection of four streets was destroyed.

I see no legal implication here.

> - street has disappeared completely
>
> The southern part of Dahlmannstraße with bus route No. 6 has
> disappeared completely though it was last edited by agreers.

No legal implication either.

> - intersections were cut off - ODbL history ignores agreeing users
> http://osm.mapki.com/history/way.php?id=8091768
>
> Both intersections were cut off though these nodes were last edited
> by an agreer. Undediced mapper Hotte Degoe has created an empty line
> without any tags. All tags were added by agreeing users, all points
> have been moved by agreeing users as well. Only v1 should be hidden,
> all other versions by agreeing mappers should be visible.

Only the tags of the additional versions could be shown; not the 
geometry. But I agree with you that it would be desirable to actually 
show the names of the participating mappers even if we cannot list 
details of their work. This is why we're making a distinction between 
"Redaction 2" and "Redaction 1". We plan to list basic meta data for 
"Redaction 2" type events, see also: 
http://www.openstreetmap.org/redactions/2

> - decliner included in ODbL history
> http://osm.mapki.com/history/way.php?id=60922724
>
> Lobelt has declined the new contributor terms so far mainly for
> political reasons, but he still appears in the "clean" ODbL history
> because he has removed a senseless tag. Removing a tag does not
> constitute a copyright, but mentioning him in the history is an
> infringement of moral rights.

No it isn't.

> - OSMF Redaction Account claims to be the only author
> http://osm.mapki.com/history/way.php?id=8573909
>
> Since the OSMF Redaction Account did not create any way, he cannot
> pretend to be the author of any way.

It doesn't. You are just reading it wrong, or looking at the wrong web 
page. Compare: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/8573909/history

> - ODbL history ignores too many agreeing users (2nd example)
> http://osm.mapki.com/history/way.php?id=8094092 Undediced mapper
> Hotte Degoe has created an empty line without any tags. All tags were
> added by agreeing users, all points have been moved by agreeing users
> as well. Only v1 should be hidden, all other versions by agreeing
> mappers should be visible.

The bot always considers a node membership in a way to be copyrightable, 
no matter if that node has been moved or not. Had you thought about this 
earlier and contributed a test case - or even taken part in the 
constructive discussion - then maybe this could have been done differently.

> These seven examples are quite simple cases without any
> complications. I am sure that some of you will be able to find many
> more examples where the bot has made severe errors.

None of these errors are "severe", and none have any legal implications 
that I can see.

> - OSMI should not ignore bot deletions Streets destroyed by the bot
> (e.g. Dahlmannstraße in Göttingen) disappear on OSMI, so there is no
> chance to check what the bot has destroyed, and why he did so.

I'm sure we'll find a good way of displaying bot edits. I made a post 
about this on the dev list. Simply showing all bot deletions is not very 
helpful though, because there is no way to get rid of such markings even 
if the deleted data has long been replaced.

I object to your choice of the word "destroyed a street". The bot does 
not destroy streets. It just prevents data from being published.

> Hiding versions may be considered as breech of
> Creative Commons license,

See above remark about "Redaction 1"/"Redaction 2". If you have any 
Rails skills then your help is certainly welcome.

Bye
Frederik

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