[Talk-us] Uploading sidewalks in San Jose, California, US

[Minh Nguyen]

On 19/09/2017 23:44, OSM Volunteer stevea wrote:
> Vivek Bansal <3vivekb at gmail.com> writes:
>> We are using the San Jose data which has an ODbL compliant license (and any government data in California has the same).
> 
> I'm following the San José discussion and don't wish to get too technically legal:  I am not an attorney, though I have paid attention to the legal situation with state (of California) produced geo data and how our state "Open Data/Open Records" laws plus two fairly recent California Supreme Court decisions make state-published data roughly if not essentially equivalent to public domain.  These legal circumstances taken together with OSM's ODBL result in "be free to use the data, OSM, they are ODbL compliant."  It isn't exactly correct to use the word "license" in how California publishes geo data.  It IS correct that such data are "ODBL compliant."  It isn't a license that grants this, it is case law or stare decisis (Latin for "let the decision stand") which confirm such data published by the state comply with both statutory law (California Public Records Act, CPRA) and California's state constitution.  The bottom line is "the data are ODbL compliant" though it isn't via "license."

Yes, we're aware of County of Santa Clara v. California First Amendment 
Coalition as it relates to the CPRA. The wiki page describing the import 
[1] currently states the source data's _copyright status_ as being in 
the public domain, steering clear of the term "license". Hopefully 
that'll be clear enough for the purposes of this import project.

> From an OSM perspective, I suppose it can be said we are fortunate to have as much state (of California) published geo data available to us as we do; I certainly am grateful for these circumstances!

Well said -- as someone who also maps in states with more restrictive 
copyright laws, it's been refreshing to be able to say "public domain", 
end of story.

[1] 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County,_California/San_Jose_Sidewalk_Import

-- 
minh at nguyen.cincinnati.oh.us