[OSM-talk] Maps and names

[Lars Aronsson]

J.D. Schmidt wrote:

> So when the OS sues OSMF, can we count on you covering the legal 
> fees for the case, whether OSMF wins or loose ?

Sorry, this argument is completely without merit.  It's like 
threatening other boys in the street that your dad is stronger 
than theirs.  We must stop beating each other on the head with 
hypothetical legal interpretations, and get down to facts.

We know that in one case the O.S. accused another British mapping 
company, the Automobile Association, of copyright infringement, as 
described on our [[Copyright Easter Eggs]] wiki page.  The news 
report from August 1999 says the AA "could face paying £20 million 
in compensation", but what was the actual outcome of this case? 
Could the O.S. really defend their claim of "copyright"?  Were any 
damages paid?  Was there a settlement?

A national land survey (of any country, not just Britain) could in 
theory drag the OSMF to court, but they could never press us for 
£20 million, because we don't have that kind of money.  This is 
the most important difference between OSMF and the AA.  You just 
don't drill for oil where no oil can be found, because drilling is 
expensive.  Even if they tried, they could probably not press us 
for enough money to pay their own lawyers.  And in most wars, this 
is a good reason for peace.  For a lawsuit to happen, the cost for 
their lawyers must be weighed against and found to be less than 
the loss in sales that our existence is causing them.  Yeah, 
that'll be the day.

Our poverty and the commercial uselessness of our maps (i.e. the 
fact that we're not displacing the sales of the land surveys) are 
just two of our strengths.  Another one is that we are of and by 
the people, while the national land surveys are agencies of the 
governments that are elected by us, the people.  We own them.  It 
cannot be excluded that a national land survey will eventually 
find a reason to fight us, regardless of our conduct, but I think 
we also have pretty good chances to prevail.


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