[OSM-talk] Will Google ever use OSM data?

[SteveC]

On Nov 5, 2009, at 5:28 PM, Richard Fairhurst wrote:

> I'd seen a vague allusion to this but not actually heard the full  
> response. Really interesting - Michael Jones of Google explaining why  
> they don't use OSM data.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQXDAFJTH6w#t=1m47s
> 
> To summarise: the only reason is that Google don't think our licensing  
> works; they didn't actually want to launch a competitor; if OSM had  
> "got its legal act in order" they wouldn't have launched Map Maker  
> against us and would have used our data.

That's half true. Nobody likes the uncertainty around CC, but really they want us to be PD because they don't want to give any data away. They'd love to suck it all in, improve it and then keep the improvements. Just look at the current data set they're not releasing, even in the middle of nowhere, Africa.

Like the majority of their improvements to open source code, they want to keep their innovations to themselves.

That's fine, their call but that doesn't mean we need to actively help them.

> But what I'm puzzled about is that he says Google were talking to OSM  
> about licensing for a year. Presumably this was prior to the launch of  
> Map Maker.

You can't really 'talk' to google. That's not how it works, they're almost as tight lipped as Apple. Saying we talked for a year is a huge stretch of the truth.

> Basically, I have no idea what he's going on about.

It's FUD.

Yours &c.

Steve