[OSM-talk] Maps and names

[Russ Phillips]

On 01/09/06, Nick Whitelegg <nick at hogweed.org> wrote:
> > The unique benefit of OSM in this respect is that our tracklogs provide
> > supporting evidence that the data was not derived from a copyright source.
> > I'm increasingly of the opinion that we should be doing more to enforce the
> > requirement that all data in OSM references it's source (tracklog,
> > photographs, landsat etc).
>
> Presumably the source could be 'memory'.  For example there is a village
> called Sway about 15 miles from where I live. I "know" that two of the roads
> are called Manchester Road and Brighton Road, simply because I remember
> things like that.

This is a good point - I live in Staffordshire, but I know a lot of
the street names in Maltby (a mining village in South Yorkshire)
because I lived there for 32 years, and I was a postman for 3 of those
years.

I'm not a lawyer either, but as I understand it the burden of proof is
on the accuser, not the accused - ie they have to prove that we have
infringed their copyright, not the other way round. That said,
attitudes seem to be changing lately, especially where copyright is
concerned, and it bothers me that we seem to be moving towards more of
a "guilty until proven innocent" basis.

Having said all that, going to court costs money, and I'd rather we
didn't have to go to court in the first place.

I'm not sure I have a definite opinion on all this, I'm just playing
devil's advocate and offering points for consideration.

Russ