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

[John Smith]

2009/11/13 Anthony <osm at inbox.org>:
> On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 9:42 PM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> That might be the case if the data is a single image, but if there is
>> a base layer plus a data layer then what?
>
> Ultimately it is made into a single image before it is displayed on
> the monitor.  The fact that this is done by the client computer is
> essentially irrelevant.

It's no more a single image than if I have a dozen transparent sheets
of plastic, like used on the old over head projectors, and layered
different images on each sheet in the same way they used to make
cartoons before computers came along.

> If the data were ODbL, and ODbL does indeed allow mashups, this is
> easily circumvented.  Take the OSM data, delete everything but what
> you're interested in (say, outlines of buildings in Grenoble), release
> that edited file, and use that as your data layer.

In terms of OSM data perhaps, but in terms of using their own base
data and just adding some additional information to it, like toilet
locations, which wouldn't be modified in any way I think this would be
seen as something different.

Which is why I think google will never use OSM data in the current
form, because it would be base data.