[Osmf-talk] OSM fair use examples

[Kai Krueger]

On 06/28/2010 08:42 AM, Tom Hughes wrote:
> On 28/06/10 07:30, Sam Vekemans wrote:
>
>> Anyway, over on the page
>> http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
>> It would be great to see a clear example of where to list the 'ccBYsa'
>> on a screenview and list a printed map example. Showing the
>> potential user just how it needs to be attributed.
>
> We don't care exactly where the user chooses to put the attribution or
> what it looks like so long as they meet the terms of the license. Indeed
> the license doesn't allow us to require the attribution to be put in a
> specific place or form.

It may still be sensible to have a few visual examples of what is 
"clearly" acceptable. Those examples should probably contain a few 
different "styles" to highlight that we indeed do not have one specific 
way of how OSM needs to be attributed.

Looking at the number of (usually accidentally) "problematic" 
attributions and the fact that for nearly every new (exiting) use of 
OpenStreetMap that gets reported one of the first responses is to 
question or complain about the validity of their attribution, to me it 
seems clear, that there is still a huge need to improve our eduction / 
documentation of what is an acceptable way to use our data, so that you 
don't need a law department to decide of how to comply with the license.

To some degree, I suspect that documentation has to be somewhat two fold.
For one towards potential users of the data of how to attribute, to try 
and reduce the number of mistakes people make.
And secondly towards our own community that indeed there is no one 
specific way of attributing and it is fine, as long as it is "reasonable 
to the medium or means You are utilising". Especially as they are the 
ones who enforce it and who nearly never have a law background. So it 
needs to be clear to them too.

In both cases having a few different visual examples may help to some 
degree.

I am not sure though it has to be on the copyright page it self, or can 
be on a page linked off of it.

>
> As the copyright page you pointed at says, all the license requires is
> that you "give the Original Author credit reasonable to the medium or
> means You are utilising" so the precise form of the credit will always
> depends on what you are doing. Even once the form is determined we have
> no right to insist on it being overlayed on any map (as against beside
> it say).
>
> Tom
>


Kai