[OSM-talk] Sourcing street names - what's the policy, and why?

[Steve Bennett]

Traditionally, mapping streets in OSM has relied on physically visiting the
streets to get a GPS trace, and noting the names of streets while you're at
it. But now with the advent of high quality aerial photography that we can
trace from (I'm thinking of nearmap, in australia), you don't have to visit
the street to get the shape.

But...where do you get the street name from? I think there's a general
policy that you can't copy it off other maps...but why, exactly? How can a
piece of information like the name of the street be copyright? Whose
copyright law are we dealing with, anyway?

Also, what if you look up 3 other maps, and they all show the same name, is
it ok to copy then?

Thanks,
Steve
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