[OSM-talk] What would you do if...

[Richard Fairhurst]

Nick W wrote:

> ...you come across a track whilst out walking, which "looks  
> like" (from 20
> years experience) a right of way, specifically a 'green lane' - an  
> old road
> lined by hedges but taking the form of unsurfaced track. There's  
> evidence of
> horse riders using it (hoof prints)
>
> a) Blatantly infringe copyright by copying its status from an  
> Ordnance Survey
> map.
>
> b) Copy its status from an online council rights of way map.  
> Probably legal to
> copy the status but maybe not.
>
> c) Assume it's a bridleway and tag it as such, with an accompanying  
> 'note' tag
> - with a small risk of being hunted down by an irate landowner in  
> case you're
> wrong.
>
> d) Assume it's a footway.
>
> e) Don't put it in OSM at all.
>
> I went with c) - comments?

It's an interesting question. To me it's actually a pretty  
fundamental question of approach: are we mapping "how things are  
meant to be" or "how things are"?

If we're mapping "how they're meant to be", then yes, you have to get  
some confirmation of the legal status - a) or b). I would be uneasy  
in copyright terms with either: doing it once is 'fair use', but a  
whole bunch of OSM contributors doing it is an infringement of  
database right.

If we're mapping "how things are", it's clearly c). If horse riders  
use it, it's a de facto bridleway. Just as if a UK road has big blue  
signs and hard shoulders, it's a motorway, whether or not it has a  
Special Roads Order.

I like the second approach better anyway. :)

cheers
Richard