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

[John Smith]

2010/1/6 Anthony <osm at inbox.org>:
> Really?  Where?  What laws are being suggested to be broken?

Not familiar with frivilous lawsuits?

Also Australian's, and the OP seems to be mapping in Australia, don't
have the same copyright laws as in the US:

Telstra, a carrier, won it's copyright case over companies copying
from white/yellow pages in 2001:

http://www.copyright.org.au/pdf/acc/articles_pdf/A01n09.pdf

> 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.

Not only is there copyright law, in the case of Google and other
online services there is also contract law.

> 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.

You mustn't have asked the right questions, see the Telstra ruling.