[OSM-talk] Google Street View copyright question

[Kenneth Gonsalves]

On Thursday 10 Sep 2009 8:37:09 am John Smith wrote:
> 2009/9/10 Anthony <osm at inbox.org>:
> > I'm not sure what help a lawyer is going to be - they're not going to be
> > able to guarantee you that much of anything is 100% (or 99.9%) safe in
> > 100% (or 95%, weighted by user-base) of jurisdictions, especially not for
> > free. As Richard says in the comments, "In the UK, as ever, the law is
> > less clear-cut than in the US."  The only way I can see this being
> > reconciled is by getting explicit permission.
>
> Actually that's what a legal opinion is, you can use it in court, if
> it gets that far, to show you sort out information before doing
> something and a lawyer thought it would be ok based on his or her
> interpretation of the law. I think only practising lawyers are able to
> legally give legal opinions.

a legal opinion has absolutely no legal value - one does not argue cases in 
court by waving legal opinions. The source of law is

1. custom
2. legislation
3. decisions of superior courts

all a legal opinion does is 'if I do such and such a thing, what are the 
courts likely to decide if there is a dispute'. So even a layman can give a 
legal opinion - but he is less likely to predict the outcome than an 
experienced lawyer. And since there are two sides to every dispute, you can 
count on two differing legal opinions on the matter. (I am a lawyer)
-- 
regards
Kenneth Gonsalves
Associate
NRC-FOSS
http://nrcfosshelpline.in/web/