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

[Anthony]

On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 10:46 AM, Richard Fairhurst <richard at systemed.net>wrote:

> Anthony wrote:
> > 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.
>
> Oh, sure. But then a lawyer could argue that one mapper doing it
> occasionally is insubstantial, but 100,000 OSM mappers all doing it
> occasionally is substantial.
>

Lawyers can argue anything they want, but if the 100,000 OSM mappers are
acting independently I highly doubt that argument will go very far.  But
what do I know, that law itself is just nutty.  Fortunately, it doesn't
apply to me.


> And so on per your driving directions example. There are infinite shades
> of grey and the only way to resolve them is to have infinite test cases.
> But we don't want to get sued, so we just say: safest to steer clear
> entirely.
>

Safest to steer clear entirely?  Absolutely.  Reasonable to do so?  I'd say
no, absolutely not.
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