[OSM-talk] Maps and names

[Andy Robinson]

Russ Phillips wrote:
>Sent: 01 September 2006 11:18 AM
>To: talk at openstreetmap.org
>Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] Maps and names
>
>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.

Russ, your comment about being a postman in the past really made me think
that there must be a huge number of retired post men and women, bus and taxi
drivers, milkmen and the like who all have a really good memory of what
street is named what and where certain points of interest are located. Give
them a printed OSM map missing the names (even if they are present now in
the data) and they would be a great resource for gathering correlative data.
It might also be a very stimulation exercise for them.

Question is, how do we find them? Is there a journal for retired postal
workers for instance? 

>
>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
>
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Cheers,

Andy Robinson
Andy_J_Robinson at blueyonder.co.uk