[Talk-us] Walmart Import

[Bill Ricker]

On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 2:45 PM, Ilya Zverev <ilya at zverev.info> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> As some of you know, Brandify company wants to import all the Walmart
> locations in the US into OpenStreetMap.
> ​​
> They have full permission to do that. See the message from their VP
> Product, Damian, for more detailed explanation:
>
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/imports/2017-Decem
> ber/005279.html
>
> After a brief discussion on the imports@ list, they made a few proposed
> changes, and I re-uploaded the result to my imports validation website.
>

​
Improved quality of the data is great, but compatibility is the first
requirement.

When I look at the linked message, "​They have full permission" means
Walmart gives them permission to share any rights they have in their list
of locations; the linked message did not affirmatively assert on behalf of
both Brandify and Walmart that OSM terms both accepted and compliance
pledged.

Were the follow-up questions on the Imports list regarding the following
ever satisfactorily settled?
* Contributor Agreement by Brandify? and Walmart?
* ODbL  by Brandify? and Walmart?
* provenance of the Latitude-Longitudes to demonstrate  ODbL compatibility


​I see none of those 5 points answered in the thread linked above. ​

I  see only that Brandify claims to have authorization from Walmart to
share list of their locations to as many maps as possible.
​
The statements by Brandify VP made leave
* unclear if Walmart's grant includes acceptance of our ODbL license and
thus passing downstream to others under ODbL,
* and unclear if they have warrantied that the posit data is cleanly
sourced so they indeed have the right to grant use of the Lat-Lons
thereunder.​

Q. Do either Brandify or Walmart understand or care that how they geocoded
the addresses would determine if the import was compatible with the ODbL?
I have not seen anything on thread suggesting they know or care.
Has geocoding provenance been answered where i didn't see it?
Until we see that, the answer must be at best "not yet".

Q. Do we have a prior ruling from OSM Legal on what proof of agency or
power of attorney to act on behalf of the client we need to accept data via
3rd party, in this case an SEO PR firm ?

In one sense, I'm inclined to think we could assume good faith on agency as
we could revert the import in the unlikely case Walmart later denied
Brandify was their agent, but IANAL, I'm also suspecting Legal team might
have different ideas. I seriously doubt Brandify has power of attorney to
accept a binding legal license on behalf of their client.  Walmart likely
doesn't care about our license now, but might be startled if e.g. a
community activist used data under the ODbL to e.g. fight a building permit
somewhere.​

​// Bill ​

-- 
Bill Ricker
bill.n1vux at gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/n1vux
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