[OSM-newbies] Non derivative work (was: roundabouts--> inside)

[Steve Bennett]

On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 1:18 PM, Alan Mintz <Alan_Mintz+OSM at earthlink.net> wrote:
> deriving from it. This is a common technique in the construction of
> software development teams - it is dangerous to hire engineers from a
> competing product because they've been exposed to copyrighted material and
> may use it for your project unknowingly. Such things are the subject of
> much recent case law, and we're not lawyers. The easiest way to ensure you
> don't copy is not to see it in the first place.

I would say that the easiest way is not necessarily the best way - we
could be being overcautious. Just like you could be missing out on the
best programmers simply because they've worked at your competitors.
Better to manage risks rather than simply avoid them.

> It shouldn't be, assuming you never copy any info directly from your GE/OS
> maps into OSM. If a picture you take is blurry and you glance at the street
> name on your printed map to confirm it, or look at StreetView to confirm
> placement of something, you may be deriving.

I would like confirmation of this from a legal brain. I'm suspcious:
all knowledge comes from somewhere. Let's say I mark a road as "Smith
St" because I know that's what it's called. Thinking back, I realise
that the reason I know that is because I had once used Google Maps to
find the address of a car crash I'd driven past. So...typing "Smith
St" into OSM is now a derivative work from Google Maps?

My point is: there are no limits to the zero-risk maximum caution
approach. Let's have a more sensible approach.

I'm guessing that we're doing far more than is legally necessary. In
most jurisdictions, ideas, facts and short names cannot be
copyrighted. There are sometimes specific exceptions for large
aggregations -- databases -- of facts, but they're pretty narrow, and
have only really been tested against blatant, automatic copying of
large collections. Not small-scale, haphazard, piecemeal copying of
individual facts.

Steve