[OSM-talk] The National Land and Property Gazetteer [was: Suggestion more complete mapping verifactiion]

[tim]

The street name is a fact, they can't claim copyright over it. if they
made a database of all the names, then they could over the database.

On 9/17/07, David Earl <david at frankieandshadow.com> wrote:
> On 17/09/2007 19:28, Andy Robinson wrote:
> > ... for the OSM project we don't go looking for that leeway. Its
> > so much simpler (and indeed safer) to ignore all "official" or even
> > "unofficial" sources and gather the data from scratch, that's the whole idea
> > behind OSM. That way we know it's not tainted in any way other than with our
> > own editing errors.
>
> One thing that has been troubling me since I started: why shouldn't a
> local authority claim copyright in its street name signs, which are the
> primary source of name data for all of us? Why should we be any less
> immune from claims of infringement there than any other source of data?
>
> I gather the street naming system in the UK is changing to centralise
> the LA's duty to provide property (and street naming) information, to go
> through the National Land and Property Gazetteer: http://www.nlpg.org.uk
> Royal Mail, for example, will in the future derive new postcodes from
> here rather than going direct to each local authority.
>
> I am not clear what the relationship would be between NLPG and the
> ability to request information (e.g. property information) from a LA
> under the UK's Freedom of Information Act. It could be this would be a
> very useful public resource; OTOH it could be a major extension limiting
> access to public data.
>
> David
>
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