[OSM-legal-talk] Addresses from Land Registry Price Paid Data

[Robert Whittaker (OSM lists)]

On 1 December 2014 at 21:51, Simon Poole <simon at poole.ch> wrote:
> Am 01.12.2014 15:08, schrieb Robert Whittaker (OSM lists):
> ....
>> This also raises the question of whether there are any other
>> OGL-licensed datasets out there that have been used in OSM, but which
>> contain undocumented third-party IP rights that we don't have
>> permission to use.
> ....
>
> This is, IMHO, not a problem specific to the OGL.
>
> In general I have yet to see any licence or agreement to include data in
> OSM, that actually states that the licensor has all the necessary rights
> to licence the data on the terms presented and holds the licensee (us)
> harmless for any damages arising out of not having those rights.

That's true, but in both the examples you've given it's a case of
other (non-copyright) rights that are not being licensed. At least an
alert user will be aware of these other rights, and would be able to
conduct their own checks (e.g. searching public patent databases,
checking for people in the images) without needing anything more from
the licensor. Presumably those licences *do* effectively guarantee
that you're ok with the licensed data as far as copyright is concerned
-- which is what the licence is there to license.

With the OGL problem I've flagged up, it's different, in that there's
seemingly no guarantee that the licence applies even to the copyright
in all the copyrightable data that you've been given. If my reading is
correct, then any random third-party could own copyrights in any of
the data, and it then wouldn't be licensed to you to re-use, and
there's no obligation on the licensor to tell you about this. But
there would be no way for a user to spot this, unless they happen to
suspect that some data could only have come from a third-party source
and make enquires of the licensor.

But the most immediate issue, I think, is do we need to do anything
about the Land Registry address use in OSM -- as the addresses are
apparently owned by a third-party, and so not covered by the OGL -- as
a result of this?

Robert.

-- 
Robert Whittaker