[OSM-newbies] Copyright question

[Dan S]

Hi Stephen,

If the agency used Google Maps to place locations, then really you
shouldn't use the location information in OSM. The agency may have
said their data is copyright-free/public-domain, but they don't
usually have the right to take data from Google and place it in the
public domain.

This is a tricky one. I guess if I were in your position, what I would
do is: use the data to tell me "roughly" where the boat ramps are, as
a guide to finding them using the Bing imagery and tracing them
directly from Bing, and then add the extra facility tagging after
that. If any of the items are not clearly visible in Bing (or other
permissible source) then I wouldn't place them.

As always, when it comes to copyright issues, I have to point out that
I'm not a lawyer...

Best
Dan

PS I didn't see any attachment on your message.


2014-03-30 4:58 GMT+01:00 Stephen Johnson <earthstephen at yahoo.com>:
> 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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