[OSM-legal-talk] Using Google Street View to perform "virtual survey"

[Martin Koppenhoefer]

2014-04-08 10:39 GMT+02:00 Simon Poole <simon at poole.ch>:

> @Martin It is undoubtedly so that the information in question is -not-
> simply available for use. You need to invest the time and effort to
> actually go out and collect it. Google has done so and that we should
> respect, regardless of legalities*.
>


I am aware of this, but you have put ethics into play. If someone
developped a system to analyze and store the DNA information of another
person (or of an animal, plant), should they be able to become the
proprietor of this information and forbid others to use it or ask license
fees? Collecting information about the world, nature, the universe ,etc.
(regardless how great the effort is) does not automatically make you the
exclusive owner of this information. Now in some jurisdictions it is
actually possible to put patents and the like on stuff that is basically
derived from nature, but it doesn't seem very ethical, at least not to me.

To make it clear, I am not advocating to use Google StreetView to derive
information for OSM, I agree that we cannot allow to do so, because we want
to have a dataset that is globally usable in every jurisdiction for any
use, I was simply replying to the ethical argument that you have raised.

cheers,
Martin
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