[OSM-newbies] Copyright for street names

[Rick Collins]

At 09:32 AM 1/6/2008, you wrote:
>Harald Kirsch wrote:
> > 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.
>
>A street name is too short to be copyrightable.
>
>Furthermore, in jurisdictions where it is not possible to copyright mere
>facts, but only the presentation or arrangement of them, it does not
>matter if some of these facts are not true. Copyright does not suddenly
>apply to a "false fact".
>
>Tony

Sure a street name is not copyrighted.  But if you use a commercial 
map (paper or electronic) as a source to label streets on your map, I 
am not sure that would not be considered a copyright 
infringement.  Sure, this is just information, but so is everything 
else on the map.  The information is not copyrighted, but the 
presentation is.  By making a similar map, you could be said to be 
"copying" the street names to a derived work which is a copyright 
infringement.

This is the sort of stuff that lawyers are paid a lot of money to 
figure out.  I would not presume to understand how to apply the law 
in an area where the experts are paid a lot more money than I receive 
for my work.  ;^)

gnuarm