[OSM-talk] Mountain names - an interesting copyright issue

[Oliver White]

On Tuesday 27 June 2006 13:41, Richard Fairhurst wrote:
>  After all, geodata is nothing but  facts: "this road is called High 
Street", "this road runs from lat n1, long n2 to lat n3, long n4"

You're lucky the local council hasn't copyrighted those road signs at the 
corner of each street. "We notice you've copied the words "high street" from 
our sign onto your map"

-- after all, roadsigns are architectural features like the buildings you 
can't take pictures of, or the landscapes you can't take pictures of*... 

And who can blame the urban planners for not wanting their street layouts 
reproduced in paper without payment?

How deep is the copyright rabbit-hole?

OJW

* http://tinyurl.com/fhqmy though you might need some login