[OSM-talk] Abnormal votings on military objects in RU wiki part; PocketGIS madness

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Kirill Bestoujev wrote:
> We (PocketGis team) are currently making some efforts to prove to our 
> state authorities that OSM data can be used by anyone, in any way. This 
> is only possible if that data contains nothing that violates Russian 
> legislation.

You have just explained that using maps published by unlicensed parties 
is not legal *generally*. This seems to be completely independent of 
whether or not military installations are depcited.

> Our proposal (formulated AFTER the vote on wiki was started by other osm 
> members) was not to remove OBJECTS from OSM, but to replace the tag 
> military by something like landuse=industrial + access=no

This is not acceptable. A military use area is not industrial.

> That is not true. We do care of OSM.

I think you should simply run a mirror of OSM data - it is not too 
difficult to set up something like I did on download.geofabrik.de where 
you can download OSM data for various areas - and make any replacement 
you think is required *in that data*.

Or if you only need tiles, then make a rendering which omits what you 
think is problematic.

> By the way - the author of the originating e-mail is not a Russian 
> citizen...

It seems that not being a Russian citizen gives one the required 
distance to view this matter clearly. It is commendable that you are 
trying to make OSM "palatable" to Russian authorities but that must not 
come at the price of modifying OSM itself to suit them.

I can understand your point but you must understand that if OSM were to 
respect national laws, we would (as John Smith has pointed out) have to 
delete all our data in those countries where community mapping is illegal!

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"