[OSM-newbies] Copyright question

[Stephen Johnson]

I would like to add information for boat ramps maintained by a state agency in my home state (North Carolina US) to OSM.  There is a GIS shapefile for these boat ramps that was created by this state agency and it is freely available.  I would like to use this shapefile as a starting point to map these boat ramps.  I would not do this in an automated way. What I would probably do is export the location data in a format suitable for display in JOSM and place the nodes by hand.  I would also export the data about the facilities to a spreadsheet to use as a guide for tagging these ramps.  The data about the facilities is probably the most important as it has address, number of parking spaces, restroom facilities etc.  There is no copyright on this database but there is a request to credit the agency in the metadata.  There is also indication in the metadata file that the agency used Google Maps to help place some of the sites geographically.  Can I
 use these data legitimately in OSM without a copyright problem?  Should I contact the agency and ask permission? Attached is a copy of the metadata in XML format. Thanks for any help you can give.

Stephen
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