[OSM-talk] Linky to geograph/OSGB

[Lars Aronsson]

Paul Dixon wrote:

> I'm one of the Geograph developers, and following this thread with interest.

Great to have you here!

> The website as a whole is not CC licenced, i.e. we haven't 
> licenced the whole thing to visitors as a derivative work. The 
> site is a collective work of individually licenced 
> contributions.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of Britain, so I cannot 
make any contribution to the website now.  But when I browse 
around, I see thumbnails of photos placed on a solid light green 
background.  If I understood the press release right, the website 
will start to display Ordnance Survey maps this autumn, and I 
presume this will be used instead of the light green background.  

If I capture a screenshot then, I will have a mash-up that is a 
derivate work of contributed photos and OS maps.  If the photos 
are licensed using a Creative Commons Share-Alike license (CC-SA), 
the resulting derivate work must also be CC-SA.  From that 
screenshot, I can then cut out any part of the map that is not 
covered with photos, making another derivate work that is also 
CC-SA.  If done systematically, I might be able to pull out map 
tiles of most of Britain, that are legally CC-SA.

> I realise that's probably said with tongue-in-cheek, but sue for 
> what?

Yes, of course it is.  And yet not.  If my screenshot scheme above 
fails and the O.S. comes after me for "piracy" of their maps, then 
I must offload the blame by charging that your website has abused 
the CC-SA-licensing of my photos by mixing it with copyrighted 
maps.  That should be enough to shut down your site, which will 
reflect badly on the O.S.  I have nothing against you, but your 
site could become a handy tool for throwing dirt on the O.S.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se