[Osmf-talk] Paid Mapping / WikiPR like issues in OSM?

[Andy Allan]

On 27 November 2013 14:54, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:

> At OpenStreetMap, we haven't yet had such problems or at least we aren't
> aware of them.

I'm aware of one incident which is somewhat reversed from what you are
discussing.

An organisation decided that we had "no right" to be mapping footpaths
on their land - land which is open to the public under an entry fee.
They wanted the features removed from the map, and so they created an
account and removed all the data from the database.

Of course, we have processes to reverse this, that's not the issue.
The issue that I found was that there is no language in the
Contributor Terms regarding deletion of other people's contributions,
so there was nothing to say that they aren't allowed to do that. Of
course we have "community guidelines" of various kinds, but our basic
Code of Conduct is still a draft after 3 years, and is not tied in any
way to your account e.g. by agreeing to it during signup. And while
that particular cabinet is unlocked, it's still hidden away in a
basement somewhere[1]

So we should figure out a formalisation of the Code of Conduct, but
also of such basic things as "You can't delete things just because you
don't like them".

Cheers,
Andy

[1] http://www.planetclaire.org/quotes/hitchhikers/