[OSM-newbies] Copyright for street names

[Harald Kirsch]

Am 06.01.2008 14:07 schrieb Sebastian Gebhard:
>> There are some many ways to get hold of street names. Off hand I can
>> think of the following:
>>
>> 1) You simply know the name, because you live there or you work there or
>> whatever.
>> 2) You remember the name from when you recorded the GPS track there.
>> 3) You remember a business' name and look it up in the phone book, there
>> you find the street name.
>> 4) You know a friend who lives nearby and call to ask.
>> 5) You once bought a street map of the area and look it up.
>> 6) You took pictures or made notes from street signs while recording the
>> GPS track.
>> 7) You look it up on one of the many mapping services on the net, e.g.
>> google maps.
>>
>> Which of those methods is ok for OSM?
>>
>> Harald.
> 
> I think most of them are okay.
> Only 5 and 7 aren't as taking the information from these sources would be "derived work". Google for example saves itself and puts mistakes in its maps. So if one would take information from google, he will also take the mistakes and so Google would have evidences that we "stole" information from them.
> I am not sure about number 3. Maybe someone else knows more about.

Isn't this a bit silly. I would think that the street name itself is in
the public domain. So you can use it. I would not expect that the way
in which you obtained the name should change this in any way. Of course
fake names on google maps are a problem, because if these are not real
street names they are likely not in the public domain, but rather
copyrighted work of google who made them up.

As a consequence I would assume that it is ok to look up street names on
google. If it is the true street name, there is nothing legally
preventing me to write it down somewhere else. If, however, it is not a
true street name, I cannot use it. Ok, I am not a lawyer and just guessing.

Harald.

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Harald Kirsch | pifpafpuf bei gmx punkt de