[OSM-talk] icon for veterinary (was: no rendering of amenity=veterinary)

[Daniel Neugebauer]

Hi again!

I didn't expect that my previous question would make such a great fuss. Since 
I now volunteered for implementing an icon for amenity=veterinary, I couldn't 
get my mind off the icon itself today.

The approved proposal - which I now know should not have any direct influence 
on the renderers presentation since they are independent projects - included a 
paw icon that shows up at "rendered-as" in the green box at

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Approved_features/Veterinary

As user Breezer commented *after* the voting had passed, that could be 
misleadingly interpreted as a pet shop instead. I agree with that and would 
prefer a different or modified icon.

Now I've got a few more questions: (practical, not technical)

1. Am I free to choose any other icon at my own decision or should I open a
   draft/RFC/vote in the wiki (or elsewhere) and post a few alternative icons?
   This is not about necessity but about organizational stuff since there was
   a somehow approved icon already and openstreetmap.org displays tiles on its
   front page, so I don't want to interfere with previous decisions.

2. I personally would prefer a rod of Asclepius and a V (for veterinary).
   Having done some quick searches on Google and Flickr that seems to be
   commonly used almost worldwide (limited to the search results) as far as
   there are any standardized icons/signs.
   
   Is there a place (maybe this mailinglist should be sufficient) to ask
   whether that's really easy to understand for everyone? It should be for
   Europe and according to my searches also in the USA and Australia; but what
   about other countries or is that irrelevant? There are existing nodes all
   over the world (currently only a minority outside Europe, USA and
   Australia), so the same icon would show up globally as soon as the
   tiles are being rerendered.

3. My personal favorite is still the rod and the V enclosed by a red circle as
   used in JOSM and suggested by Ulfl. I'm unsure if that may be protected by
   law or registered as a trademark since it's the sign used throughout
   Germany at almost all vet surgeries. I would ask my government as well as
   the veterinary association about it by email. If it's protected we couldn't
   use it. If it isn't (according to these two emails) I would like to choose
   it as the rendering icon.

   What's the official policy of OSM, Osmarender and Mapnik concerning the
   use of such icons? I know that Wikipedia has the policy to either don't use
   them at all or the email communication has to be archived at the
   foundation for later legal reference.

   Since I'm in Germany, there's neither fair use nor public domain for me; if
   there's any chance of a remotely legal issue I'm unable to use that icon or
   it could be seen as an infringement.

Thanks,
Daniel