[OSM-talk] How is there not any creative-type (US) copyright in OSM data?

[Anthony]

On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 9:55 AM, Eugene Alvin Villar <seav80 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Why do people believe that there no creative copyright in OSM data (i.e.,
> why is CC-BY-SA supposedly indefensible for OSM data)? I'm talking about the
> US-type of copyright that is based on sufficient creativity, and not on the
> sweat-of-the-brow copyright that is part of UK IP.
>

I'm going with that assumption because that's what the OSM, Creative
Commons, and Open Data Commons, all are telling us.

But I think you're right that there could be argued to be some creative
content in the OSM database.  Essentially every time someone decides to "map
for the renderer" rather than "map what's on the ground", they're making a
creative decision.

I think *most* of the OSM database is uncopyrightable here in the US.  The
road networks, at least the public road networks, are probably public
domain.  The service roads, maybe not - there was a certain amount of
selectivity to them.  The POIs, yes and no.  If I extract all the "police
stations" from the OSM database, that's probably public domain.  But if I
take all the POIs, maybe not.  There was a selective process used to
determine which types of POIs to include and which not to include.  On the
other hand, who owns the copyright on this selection process?  Probably we
all do.


> But I would argue that a selection of a finite set from an infinite
> possible nodes that can represent the centerline of a road is a sufficiently
> creative endeavor that is automatically afforded copyright according to the
> US copyright system.


Inaccuracy isn't copyrightable.  Mistakes aren't copyrightable (see Feist).
The intent of OSM is to represent the centerline of a road as accurately as
possible.  There aren't an infinite number of possibilities which we
creatively choose from.  (First of all, the number of possibilities that can
be represented is finite, as the number of decimal places is finite.  But
more to the point, the purpose is to record exactly one result, and any
deviation from that is simply an error.)  Mistakes and inaccuracy do not
represent creative input.
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