[Talk-GB] Using store locator as source

[David Earl]

On 16/09/2013 17:35, Adam Hoyle wrote:
> On 16 Sep 2013, at 16:14, Andy Allan <gravitystorm at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Err, no. That's not how the law works - either on copyright or on
>> database rights.
>
> Lol, good point - perhaps I should ask if any of them can attribute a
> license to the locations on their sites - what would be the best
> license for them to use? Creative Commons, or something else? Any
> good URLs to share would be handy to make a stronger case - if they
> don't just look at me blankly that is.

Almost all retail sites will claim blanket copyright in every page of 
their websites. Just to take one at random, I went to 
http://www.boots.com/ . See the bottom of the page, and you'll see the 
copyright statement.

Furthermore, any maps or use of postcode location they use may also be 
copyright to someone else, like Royal Mail.

But just because something is copyright doesn't mean they can't give you 
permission to use it for certain purposes. They don't need to change 
their copyright to do that, as long as they understand the implications, 
that the specific information referred would be released under the ODbL. 
I'd have thought most stores would be only too glad for their locations 
to be published, but because of the blanket copyright claimed, they'd 
each need to be asked.

The caveat is that they may not be in a position to give you permission 
if the data is itself tied up in copyright to someone else - for example 
if it is derived using the Royal Mail postcode to location database. 
Depending who you ask, they may not realise this is the case. But if you 
read off the location of a store from their branch finder from a map, 
you can be sure that's not allowed and they can't themselves give you 
permission because it doesn't belong to them. And if it's not a map, but 
say the postal address, how are you then going to obtain the location to 
mark it on a map?

The kind of stores we're talking about are in sizeable places, and the 
numbers aren't huge, so doing it on foot is surely perfectly do-able and 
quicker and easier than approaching every chain for a complicated 
permission which they may themselves get wrong. Doing it on the ground 
means you get them all, systematically, in one place too irrespective of 
size or whether they have an online branch finder.

David