[OSM-talk] Wikipedia POI import?

[Donald Allwright]

>From: Pieren <pieren3 at gmail.com>

>To: Russ Nelson <russ at cloudmade.com>
>Cc: Talk Openstreetmap <talk at openstreetmap.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, 6 May, 2009 16:17:51
>Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] Wikipedia POI import?
>
>On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 5:06 PM, Russ Nelson <russ at cloudmade.com> wrote:
>
>So, if I understand this discussion, I cannot create a POI based on
>Google aerial photography directly in OSM. But if I create my POI
>first in Wikipedia, then import it in OSM, it is permitted. Is that
>correct ?

I think there are two issues here, which are only partially related.

Firstly, there is what the relevant laws actually say on the matter. So for example, the laws say that if Wikipedia licenses its data as CC-BY-SA we can import it without worrying about it. If they didn't have the right to license the data as such, that is primarily their problem and we only have to respond if a court decides that this was improper and we should therefore remove the data. I am fairly happy with doing a mass import of Wikipedia data on this basis.

Secondly, there is the risk that a company, irrespective of what the laws say, will start throwing lawsuits around. I am not convinced that Google would do this in this case, but those from whom they license the data might do. It doesn't matter whether they have a case or not, their claims could be completely and utterly bogus. But once they've thrown their lawsuit, you are then tied up in an expensive legal process from which it can be very hard to escape unless your lawyers are bigger than theirs (or more accurately, the pockets that pay your lawyers are deeper than the pockets that pay theirs). Think of this as the "Microsoft" approach to the law. It is this risk that we are more concerned about here, and this is what would make me wary of doing a mass import. If our product is a threat to their profitability then they will throw morals out of the Windows and do whatever they can to halt their competitors, claiming that they have a moral duty to look
 after the interests of their shareholders.

Much as I hate the fact that this is how it works, it's a sad fact of this world that there are many large organisations who don't care about right or wrong who also happen to have pretty deep pockets.

Cheers,
Donald



      
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