[OSM-talk] geonames.org

[Richard Fairhurst]

Marc wrote:

> Here just two points why this use of the googlemaps api does NOT make it
> a derived work :
> 1. Geonames is using a lot of data sources. gmaps is not the only one.
> In fact gmaps is even negligible. There are thousands of manual moves
> using the satellite/map view compared to millions of records from many
> other sources.

That's as maybe, but OpenStreetMap data policy is that _any_ data  
derived, even partly, from Google Maps or other such sources is not  
acceptable.

> 2. Even if a user is using gmaps to move or set a marker, it is still
> not an exact copy as the user determines where to set the marker. The
> latitude and longitude will differ wildly from what gmaps is using
> internally. "Marker" for geonames typically means a populated place.

Doesn't matter. Again, OSM understanding is that anything placed by  
reference to a Google or other copyrighted map, even if it's not a  
direct copy of a record represented on that map, is a derived work.

We have a legal-talk at openstreetmap.org list if you want to argue the  
toss on this. :)

cheers
Richard