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

[Simon Hewison]

Dean Earley wrote:
> So, the rendering of a map would be copyright but not the road layout 
> itself....

Unless of course you're talking about the road layout of any of the 
following roads:

Lye Street, Bristol,
Moat Lane, Finchley, London N3
Torrington Place, Finchley, London N3
.. and all the entries on
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Catalog_of_Errors

and plenty more..

Those road layouts are copyright, because they are figments of the 
cartographers' imagination, rather than a representation of a real life road 
layout. Unfortunately, the only safe way of determining if it's real or not 
is to go to that place and see for yourself.

--
Simon Hewison