[OSM-talk] Some time ago ...

[Ulf Lamping]

Am 05.01.2010 08:23, schrieb Steve Bennett:
> On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 3:47 AM, Ulf Lamping <ulf.lamping at googlemail.com
> <mailto:ulf.lamping at googlemail.com>> wrote:
>
>     P.S: All that time it was - for me - simply out of question to copy map
>     data from Google or other alike sources to get free and open map data
>     that will remain free and open.
>
>
> Ok, let's use the word "consult" rather than "copy". Did you ever, in
> all that time, consult Google Maps? How did you know which areas hadn't
> been mapped, but weren't empty?

That's not "copy" IMHO.

> Did you ever look up a street name that
> you'd forgotten to write down, or did you go and physically visit it again?

I've physically visit it again. There's no big deal to revisit a street, 
if you want to map the next house block a few hundred meters away from it.

In fact it's quite a good idea to revisit an area anyway, as it's almost 
impossible to get all details in one run. You'll need at least two runs 
to get all the details, very often more:

1. Get the physical "road layout" and some street names and POIs (quick)
2. Fill in the street names, more POIs (slow)
3. Fix missing names, fix POI positions, more (minor) POIs (quick)

When go out, I'll often have three areas nearby which are in one of 
these three "states".

BTW: Aerial imagery will save you only the first step: The physical road 
layout (of course, this is a great help). Street category, speed limit, 
POIs, names and all that needs to be "manually" mapped anyway.

> I feel that I/we Australians are in danger of being misrepresented, like
> we have some secret plan to simply copy data off Google Maps rather than
> obtain it legitimately. We don't. I just want to ask the question: what
> is the legal basis that says that one company's representation of a
> street name is copyright, and therefore can't be copied?

It has been really enough said about this already. If you don't like the 
reasons given, it's up to you to start your own map data project.

> As you say, back in the day, you didn't have a choice but to go and
> visit each street with a GPS. Now there are choices.

If there are reasonable legal concerns, these are not real choices IMHO.

Regards, ULFL