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

[Paul Norman]

On 3/31/2015 11:02 AM, stevea wrote:
> Part of the reason I do this is because other places you might 
> "discover" these data (subdivision names) are maps published by the 
> rail corporations.  But, be careful.  For example, I have found that 
> when I go to Union Pacific's web site to get a page that displays 
> their network map, I get a "login screen" or a very high-zoom level 
> map which is clearly copyright protected, meaning OSM cannot enter 
> those data.  However, a map I found on BNSF's web site [1] is clearly 
> NOT copyright protected, so I believe I can use those data.  These are 
> usually very high-zoom level maps, meaning they are only useful to 
> "confirm" that an existing line (again, from TIGER) has a certain 
> name.  They are not sufficient/detailed enough to enter the rail data 
> from scratch.
Without some kind of license giving permission, you cannot use other 
maps with OSM. The absence of a copyright notice has no impact on if 
something is protected by copyright* and I see nothing on the BNSF map 
to imply it is public domain.

* With some exceptions, mainly around old works.