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

[Anthony]

On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 12:23 AM, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 3:13 PM, Anthony <osm at inbox.org> wrote:
>
>> > And I fail to see how carrying out a pilgrimage to the street in
>> question changes anything.
>>
>>>
>> It certainly builds confidence that the names you're entering are correct.
>>
>
> A couple of people have tried to sneak this argument in. Physically
> visiting streets may have some side benefits in terms of accuracy,
> additional mapping etc. But that's a separate issue. The only question at
> issue here is copyright infringement.
>

Then you're asking it in the wrong place.  If you want advice on what
is/isn't copyright infringement, you need a lawyer, not a mailing list.

I thought this thread was about what we should/shouldn't be adding in to
OSM.  There are multiple issues there - copyright infringement is only one
of them.

On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 4:25 AM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com>wrote:

> But he's not suggesting legal methods, he's suggesting inflicting
> copyinfringement and/or breach of contract on OSM, the kind of thing
> where even if you are in the right the other side can bankrupt you
> before you ever get close to winning.
>

Really?  Where?  What laws are being suggested to be broken?

I certainly don't suggest blatantly breaking the law.  What I suggest is not
acting as though there is a law when you have no evidence that there is.

So far no one has shown me the law that is supposedly being broken.  One
brief attempt pointed to EU database law, which 1) hasn't been shown to
apply in Australia; and 2) hasn't been shown to apply to all instances of
copying anyway.

What we're left with is some sort of vague "Pascal's Wager" type
admonishment - "I have absolutely no evidence for my claims, but you have to
follow what I say anyway because not doing so would be infinitely bad."  I
don't buy that crap.
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