[OSM-talk] Illegal activity

[Pieren]

On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 4:53 AM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/11/2 Anthony <osm at inbox.org>:
>>  In France you can copyright a building
>> and anyone who takes a picture of the building and uses it for
>> commercial purposes without permission is committing copyright
>> infringement.

False but also not completely false. As usual, they are some special
circumstances where a building can be protected but these are special
cases and can't be generalized as paranoids do  (otherwise StreetView
wouldn't exist in France).

> it's irrelevent what laws exist
> in France as far as this thread is concerned.

It's not the question about laws in France, Germany or US vs England.
It's the question to know if OSM database can survive if it contains
data from illegal sources, independently of the country.

Richard is convinced that the content of the photos is not protected
and I agree on that point. But he just decides to ignore all the
investments spent to rectify and georeference these photos on which
his derivative work is based. And this investment and work is
protected.

Pieren