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

[Dan Karran]

2010/1/2 Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com>:

> Anyway, the answer to my question seems to be "use your own judgment, don't
> tell anyone where you got the information from, and everything will be ok".
> Which is a weird answer, but ok.

I wouldn't say that's a widespread view of people in the project, just
a small minority. You shouldn't be using information from other
sources unless you know that they are free of any copyright (or from a
source with a compatible license), otherwise it has the potential to
cause issues in any area where copyrighted sources have been used.

I think the FAQ in the wiki[1] is quite clear in saying that you
generally shouldn't copy from other places:

===
 What images and maps may I use to make maps from?

Most maps have copyright restrictions. This includes images from "free
beer" sites as Google Maps, and printed paper maps, even if you
scanned them yourself. Commercial aerial/satellite photography is also
copyrighted.

You should not use copyrighted maps in any way while editing
OpenStreetMap (unless it is compatible with our license). "Using"
includes tracing over the map, copying a name from the map, or
pinpointing a coordinate on the map. To be on the safe side, we tend
to regard all of these as a form of copying, or "creating a derived
work". Generally speaking, it's best not to even look at copyrighted
maps while you are editing OpenStreetMap.

So what can you use? Not very much, which is why we are doing all this
re-surveying from scratch. However there are some Potential
Datasources, in particular we have imported TIGER data for the US, AND
Data for the Netherlands. We also make use of out-of-copyright maps
although they are very old, and Yahoo! Aerial Imagery (which we have
special permission to trace over).
===


Best wishes,
Dan

[1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/FAQ#What_images_and_maps_may_I_use_to_make_maps_from.3F

-- 
Dan Karran
dan at karran.net
www.dankarran.com