[OSM-talk] Apologies

[Tom Carden]

On 4/25/06, Christopher Schmidt <crschmidt at crschmidt.net> wrote:
>
> But manipulating data means that anyone could put it on top of Google
> Maps. and then we'd have the same problem all over again. So it's
> probably best to just not allow that, isn't it?

We can't stop people doing that without stopping them doing lots of
things we'd like them to do, and lots of things we haven't even
thought about.  It's just data, after all!

 > If it's dangerous to the
> project to see OSM + google maps associated together, providing the
> tools to let people easily do this is a bad idea... unless I'm
> misunderstanding. I mean, if I published a WMS server, there's nothing
> to stop someone else from setting up exactly what I did, and far more
> easily than is currently possible.
>

Somebody put OpenStreetMap on top of Google Maps some time last year. 
It was linked from the FAQ for a while:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/FAQ
http://www.geoskating.com/gmap/osm-gmap.html

Since we know we can't stop things like this (and yes, we think it's
cool!) we came to an agreement that the page should link to the FAQ
and explain clearly why close comparison between OSM and commercial
maps could be dangerous.

> After the last 100 message license debate, I got tired of
> the fact that people were spending hours upon hours arguing over the
> most minute detail repeatedly with no resolution. So I left, and I
> probably shouldn't have come back, as doing so has only succeded in
> making clear my frustrations, which is never a good thing to do in a
> volunteer project.

Right, but you  acted like you knew all about the project - you'd
already tried and failed to give money, hardware, fix bugs etc.  But
if you left, then you missed the resolution of a lot of those
stressful annoying things.

> Well, my previous patches to the code for issues in trac were all
> completely ignored, so I'm glad that I at least got people to ask me not
> to do what I was doing -- that's better than being ignored.

Hmm... that's not cool - what patches?  I can't find you anywhere on
trac by searching for crschmidt or schmidt (compare searching for
carden or steve or imi).  Did you ask for a subversion account and
upload the changes there, or just send them directly to Steve.  Steve
has on occasion been snowed under with OSM, but I'm pretty sure he
doesn't turn down patches if they work... what went wrong?

> Eh. If someone else wants to set this up, let me know, but I don't have
> the time at the moment to learn yet another tile mapping interface.
>

If only there was one true javascript tile interface for embedding
maps in web pages.  Someone should build that ;)

> I'll keep the page password protected until someone else or myself gets
> the tuits to make this work. Feel free to email me offlist for access.
>

I'd be happy to take a look at the projection issues you had if you
send me the access details.

Tom.