[OSM-talk] Russians at it again

[John Smith]

On 7 May 2010 17:36, Maarten Deen <mdeen at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> 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.

The whole argument is quite silly in any case, anyone with real
malintent isn't going to tell a foreign government they're spying on
them, and they'll collect or already have a lot more information than
any OSM mapper will bother to collect...

> 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).

This is up to individuals to decide, there is nothing wrong with
pointing out if you wish to visit these regions don't do anything they
might arrest you or jail you for, in countries like Thailand you only
need to publish books critical of their monarch and you can be
arrested if you go there, so publishing guidelines is good, demanding
what people can and can't do isn't good.

> 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".

Which is why this is on the talk list, to highlight what is happening
in the background that some are trying to sneak through while others
are unaware...