[OSM-legal-talk] Legal status of certain mapping activities

[Toggenburger Lukas]

Dear list

I am indirectly involved in the following situation: In the context of a research project a team wants to add a list of POIs (libraries) to the OSM database. The names of the libraries, their postal addresses, the address of the websites, and further details of the libraries are known from official sources. But not all of the buildings holding these libraries are mapped in OSM yet. In other cases the building is already present in the OSM database but not tagged any further (especially streets and house numbers are missing). 

The goal of the following questions is to remove ambiguity and speculation about what is legal/desired by the OSM community for the aforementioned project team. I am acting as an intermediary.

Case 1:
Is it legal/desired to look up the address of a particular POI on online maps like Bing map (https://www.bing.com/maps/), search.ch (http://map.search.ch), Google Maps (https://www.google.ch/maps/) or Swiss cantonal geoportals to determine in which building a POI is situated? The coordinates would not be copied digitally, instead the now identified building would be traced and added to the OSM database using sources such as Bing Aerial Imagery in JOSM/iD and the POI data would then be added.

Case 2:
Assuming the website of the POI is showing a picture of the POI itself. Is it legal/desired to look for the POI on aerial imagery and determine the correct building, e.g. by outline, surroundings, or roof-color? (Case 2a: Aerial imagery is from Bing; Case 2b: Aerial imagery is from another service mentioned above.)

Case 3:
If the building where the POI is situated is not present in the OSM database yet, but the person who wants to add the POI knows its exact position, is it legal/desirable that the POI is added anyway? 

Case 4:
My understanding is that we in OSM take a very cautious approach when using sources other than (our own) surveys, local knowledge and sources with explicit permission. Assuming there is a website of a POI containing information we would like to map. Let's say: phone number, postal address, e-mail address, operator's name, a link to the operator's Facebook page and a hand-drawn map (alternatively: a copyrighted map with a marker) from which we can derive the POI's building (as in case 2). Wouldn't we need to ask every single POI/website operator for permission before mapping these things? If no, what's the difference to case 1? (This may seem as trolling but actually came up as rationale in a recent discussion.)

Best regards

Lukas

--
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
Master of Science FHO in Engineering
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft HTW Chur
Institut für Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien

Pulvermühlestrasse 57, CH-7004 Chur
Tel. +41 (0)81 286 37 22
lukas.toggenburger at htwchur.ch

www.htwchur.ch