[OSM-talk] Maps and names

[Emil]

On 9/1/06, Richard Fairhurst <richard at systemed.net> wrote:
> (a) as Steve says, you can (in the EU) assert database right,

I think that maps don't count as databases: The law says that a
database is: (from 1988 act, this is the defn used in the later
database right s.i.)

3A3  Databases
 (1) In this Part "database" means a collection of independent works,
data or other
     materials which –
       (a) are arranged in a systematic or methodical way, and
       (b) are individually accessible by electronic or other means.
 (2) For the purposes of this Part a literary work consisting of a
database is original if, and
     only if, by reason of the selection or arrangement of the
contents of the database the
     database constitutes the author's own intellectual creation.

It doesn't sound like a map to me (haven't consulted case law though)
- for a start, a map is not a collection of  individual facts,
secondly  I think it would fail on the 2nd point, since there is no
"intellectual creation" in choosing the facts for a map.

> (b) if we assert that facts aren't copyrightable, then that applies
> equally to OSM (which is purely a factual representation of stuff on
> the ground), so we can't apply a CC licence.

I agree. That's why I said before that I don't think people who take
coordinates off our map should consider themselves to have made a
derivative work.

Emil