[Talk-us] USA Rail: Calling all OSM railfans! (especially in California)

[Russ Nelson]

Paul Norman writes:
 > Without some kind of license giving permission, you cannot use other 
 > maps with OSM.

April Fools! Yes, you can. There are many kinds of public domain maps
whose republication needs no license. For example, in the US all maps
published before the magic date, whatever year it is we're up to
now. Maps copyrighted but not renewed. Maps published without a
copyright before 1988. Maps with insufficient creative content to be
copyrightable.

There are maps which are canonical sources of facts about the world,
such as a BNSF map naming subdivisions. No one can own a fact about
the world, because it's a fact. Just like you can't patent math. Same
idea. You can copyright a collection of facts. You can copyright the
arrangement of facts. You can copy the presentation of facts. But you
can't copyright the individual facts.

-- 
--my blog is at    http://blog.russnelson.com
Crynwr supports open source software
521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-600-8815
Potsdam, NY 13676-3213  |     Sheepdog