[talk-au] Talk-au Digest, Vol 65, Issue 24

[Andrew Harvey]

On 22/11/12 11:41, chuck sirron wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Mike from TMR got in touch with me this morning reversing his statement
> about using tourist route information on local council maps, see below. I
> haven't used them to add anything to OSM anyway.
> 
> "Hi Wil,
> 
> Unfortunately your posting on Open Street Map has caused me some grief!
> 
> It seems I was not correct in thinking that the maps I provided as
> reference material in PDF form can be freely used. Those on my GIS  section
> with a greater understanding of copyright matters have decreed that
> copyright does actually exists over this information and therefore it
> cannot be made available to Open Street Maps.
> 
> <name>, one of my GIS associates, can provide more information on copyright
> matters pertaining to this data if you wish to discuss possibilities but it
> seems likely that it will not be possible to use this data in the way you
> envisaged in the short term at least. You can reach <name> on <number>.
> 
> My apologies for the confusion, but would you please update your posting to
> withdraw the expectation that the route marking information I provided can
> be made available to Open Street Map
> 
> Kind regards,
> *
> Mike"*
> 

On 21/11/12 16:37, wil ly wrote:
> Ok, I just spoke to Mike Keeble from Transport and Main Roads Queensland
> who stated that the information is in the public domain and he is fine for
> me to put it into OSM, so long as TMR is not listed as the source. He
> advised that the information is public because it is on road signs (such as
> catalogued here: http://ozroads.com.au/) and all he has done in giving it
> to me is provide a collection of freely available information. He doesn't
> want TMR listed as a source as it has not been subject to QA.
> 
> Wil
>

Although everyone had the best intentions here, this is why I try to
insist on only using any 3rd party source where a compatible license
comes attached with the data or map you are sourcing from. Even if you
have received verbal or direct correspondence with a person from the
agency often their statements are not official department statements,
but personal opinions as it appears to have happened in this case. Much
the same as the blanket data.gov.au license which people on this list
have attained from direct correspondence with a certain individual at
the department.

This just reinforces that at the end of the day we need to get outside
and observe these route signs on the ground and re-map their locations
based on that.

Although we are slowly seeing more and more government data pro-actively
released under open licenses, there is still a long way to go. At least
TMR are engaging with the community.

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