[OSM-legal-talk] Question about copyrighted hiking routes in France

[Steve Bennett]

On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 9:20 PM, Nick Whitelegg
<Nick.Whitelegg at solent.ac.uk> wrote:
> More philosophically the idea of someone claiming copyright on walking
> routes seems completely at odds with the nature of countryside walking,
> which to my mind has similar free and open values to open source software
> and data (the landowners and their "Keep out" signs being similar to
> proprietary licencing)


And pragmatically, there are real problems when an organisation that
establishes a route also seeks to derive income from selling
information about it. It seems logical, until your realise that the
organisation's two goals (promoting a route by disseminating
information about it; and gaining income to achieve the primary goal)
are completely contrary to each other.
The "Tasmanian Trail" is completely obscure because the only
information about it is in a mail-order paperback.
To walk/ride the Great Dividing Trail requires paying for four really
crappy maps. (Hopefully in two weeks' time it will be 90% OSM'ed.)
Rail Trails Australia was heading in a similar direction, but I helped
convince them that sharing information about the trails *is* their
mission.

Maybe the FFRP could be persuaded eventually? Convince them to give up
claims of copyright on the route geography, and focus on prose
descriptions, subjective details etc?

Steve