[talk-au] Copyright questions

Steve Bennett stevagewp at gmail.com
Wed Jan 6 11:45:54 GMT 2010


On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 9:15 PM, Richard Colless <firefly at ar.com.au> wrote:

> You're right, Steve, there is no way to prove it. What we need to be sure
> of is that our own actions are ethical, and in the spirit of OSM. I *do*use a street directory, along with some online sources, to verify street
> names, or to check spelling. I don't have any qualms about it, and I hope
> with my explanation that others will feel comfortable also.
>
>
Yes, I'm reaching the conclusion that there is a "spectrum of dodginess"
ranging from blatant copying of large numbers of coordinates down to much
more minor checks of spelling, use of other maps for directions etc. The
further you get from the blatant end, the more people's opposition seems to
be motivated by ideology, aesthetics, unstated reasons etc. That's ok.

It has occurred to me that in some ways it would be useful to blatantly copy
streets from other sources, and mark them "TODO" or something, with just
start and end points. They wouldn't render in the main map, but might render
in some specialist maps for OSM people. They would make it a lot easier to
know which streets you needed to go and map. Then you'd delete the copied
one, and only use the real data. I think it would be legitimate, but far too
fraught to propose seriously.

Steve
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-au/attachments/20100106/9de42729/attachment.html>


More information about the Talk-au mailing list