[OSM-talk] Can OSM sources be public domain CC-0(zero)?

[andrzej zaborowski]

On 1 September 2010 17:40, Anthony <osm en inbox.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 8:59 AM, Niklas Cholmkvist <towardsoss en gmail.com> wrote:
>> Someone wrote:
>>> take the coordinates from Google
>>> Earth/Maps.
>> I will not. That is a non-free source, the same reason I do not
>> look/consider Wikimapia(google maps based) or any other proprietary
>> maps.
>> OSM may currently be the freest data collection that exists (since
>> CC-BY-SA-3.0 is legally invalid for OSM data according to Creative
>> Commons)
>
> If OSM data is PD, then so is Google data.

I think the correct term is it's not protected by copyright, not sure
about PD.  But it may be protected by something else, like a contract.
 So even if it was PD you can't make use of this fact because as soon
as you visit google.com you may be bound by a contract.  If you use it
without being bound by a contract then (at least in theory) you
probably are taking advantage of someone breaching their contract with
google. (that's my understanding anyway)

Cheers