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

Anthony osm at inbox.org
Sat Jan 2 15:33:07 GMT 2010


On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 8:33 AM, Richard Fairhurst <richard at systemed.net>wrote:

> Quick answer as requested:
>
> 1. Your jurisdiction may give databases of facts protection over and above
> the facts themselves. Simplifying hugely, the EU does, the US doesn't.
> http://www.iusmentis.com/databases/ for more.
>

I'd say a key provision there is the one about "repeated and systematic
extraction of insubstantial parts".  If you're just using a map site
occasionally, when you hit a snag, that's one thing.  If you're
systematically using it on road after road, that's another.

2. The Terms of Use for Google Maps (or whatever) may forbid it through
> contract.
>

Interestingly, the TOS for Google Maps forbids copying of "any part" of the
content, not just "substantial" parts.  But that can't possibly be meant to
be taken literally.  Is it really forbidden to write down driving directions
on a piece of paper, or to tell them to someone else over the phone?

Furthermore, if you're using more than one source, who's to say whether you
copied the data from Google and verified it with the other source, or if you
copied the data from the other source and verified it with Google?

On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 8:21 AM, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:

> But if I was going to be doing ground surveys, there are lots of places I'd
> rather visit than these new outer suburban housing developments.
>

Why aren't you mapping those places instead?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20100102/f8cbc7af/attachment.html>


More information about the talk mailing list