[OSM-talk] License plan - minimum-legalese option

[Peter Miller]

On 4 Mar 2009, at 16:43, Ed Avis wrote:

> Richard Fairhurst <richard <at> systemed.net> writes:
>
>>> I could start tracing in things from Ordnance Survey maps
>>> right away.  Note that these maps are 'Crown Copyright', not
>>> 'Crown Database Right'
>>
>> http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22crown+copyright+and+database+right%22
>
> Heh.  My maps are too old to have this.
>
> The point still stands: if it turns out that map data is copyright- 
> free then this
> will be a great boost to the project.  However, I wouldn't bet on  
> that outcome.

The clear advice (verbal so far) from our lawyer is that in the UK/EU  
map data is covered by copyright (as well as DB rights). When one  
products an index of street names for a town then it starts to look  
more like a DB but some recent case law concluded that copyright was  
more significant that had been expected even in the case where two  
different people who didn't communicate and worked independently would  
come up with exactly the same answer - however somewhere in this  
second sentence I should have stopped and let our lawyer say it for  
herself.


Regards,



Peter


>
>
> And if the OSM Foundation has a database right in the collected  
> data, it could
> use it to sue anyone incorporating the data in proprietary maps  
> right now.  You
> do not need to relicense the data to cause that database right to  
> appear.
>
> -- 
> Ed Avis <eda at waniasset.com>
>
>
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