[OSM-talk] Russians at it again

[Maarten Deen]

On Fri, 7 May 2010 17:18:02 +1000, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com>
wrote:
> On 7 May 2010 17:01, Maarten Deen <mdeen at xs4all.nl> wrote:
>> Granted, this is _photograhing inside a military zone_, and not looking
>> from a public road to a military zone, but the legality of it all
depends
>> on the law of the country.
> 
> No one is encouraging or saying you should map anything if it is
> against the law, however if we map from sat imagery in a country that
> isn't Russia you may not be breaking any law since the database isn't
> hosted in Russia.

I wouldn't bet on a government saying "you were not in our country when
you disclosed our state secrets, so you're off the hook". I'm sure that if
they find their secrets to be important enough, they will arrest you if you
come to that country, even when the actions they find illegal are not
committed in their country.

But again: it is unlikely they can touch you if you do not come to that
country, and it is also unlikely that they can take actions against OSM
(other than blocking access, which does not solve their problem much).

> However your earlier comments were more on topic:
> 
>> I agree completely with Patrick on this. OSM is a free map and nobody
can
>> forcefully regulate what is added and what is not. Also, removal of
>> correct
>> data is vandalism, so any attempt of any person of institution to
remove
>> correct data has to be qualified as such.

Yep. That's my point: any individual mapper should decide for himself what
he maps and what not. No other mapper should decide for him what he can or
can not map.
And IMHO that vote they're taking is therefore void. Or only to be seen as
a "guideline".

Regards,
Maarten