[OSM-talk] Maps and names

Etienne 80n80n at gmail.com
Fri Sep 1 18:21:06 BST 2006


On 9/1/06, Emil <emil79 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 9/1/06, Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se> wrote:
>
> > Unless the lat/long coordinates in the original Wikipedia articles were
> > collected using GPS then chances are that this information was lifted
> from a
> > map.  Wikipedia's GFDL license would not protect us from the original
> > copyright infringment.
>
> Well some of us don't think taking coords from a map is copyright
> infringement - as the posts below show, this view leads to ridiculous
> conclusions. I'll say it again: you can't copyright facts.
>
> I understand people are scared of lawyers - but I think some sort of
> stand needs to be taken here - we need to call bullshit on the OS etc
> who think they can copyright facts.


The issue is not just about copyright.

One of the first questions any user of an OSM map will have is "How do I
know I can trust this map?"  The consequences of an incorrect map can be
quite signficant.  This was a question that was raised frequently in
Wikipedia's early days and is still an issue for them today.

OSM is different to Wikipedia in that we do have the opportunity to make our
data verifiable.   The main way is by the presence of trackpoints.  It can
also be done by tagging sources for other information such as street names
and road numbers.

I know it is time consuming and not so much fun, but without good source
references that can be verified,  many users will have a justifiable
distrust about the accuracy of our data.

Etienne







Emil
>
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