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

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

> 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?

In Germany we can be relatively sure of that. The law about
intellectual property, our "Urheberrechtsgesetz", contains a paragraph
saying that any official publication does not fall under copyright; an
exemption is made for parts that are not the direct purpose of the
publication.

This means that if they have an official publication that is supposed
to tell you where they are erecting a statue and a map is given as a
reference, that map may (and is, likely) still be copyrighted as the
core purpose of the publication is the location of the statue (and not
the map of the surroundings). A street sign, however, clearly has the
core purpose of providing the street name to the public and thus
cannot be protected by copyright. In Germany at least.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00.09' E008°23.33'