[OSM-talk] Okay, this is just cool (Lockport, NY)

[Richard Weait]

On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 11:49 AM, Pieren <pieren3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 2:45 PM, Martijn van Exel <m at rtijn.org> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 2:37 PM, Dave F. <davefox at madasafish.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On 31/03/2011 13:23, Martijn van Exel wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Out of curiosity: is it considered acceptable to use Google StreetView
>>>> to assist in armchair mapping? I personally would not use it, as it seems to
>>>> be a violation of their ToU:
>>>> http://www.google.com/intl/en_ALL/help/terms_local.html which state (among
>>>> many other things) that it is not allowed to use the photographic imagery in
>>>> Google Maps to create derivative works.
>>>
>>> No, it's not acceptable.
>>>
>>> To be clear I was not asking for tagging advice, I was just curious.
>>
>> Yes, so was I. Good to have it clarified here.
>>
>
> My first intention was to ignore this message but I cannot, I refuse
> ignorance and fud. So again, some basic definitions: facts are nowhere in
> the world copyrightable, nowhere. Copyright is about creation/invention.
> Collections of facts are using copyright laws by extension in some countries
> (but not everywhere). Photographies of facts are copyrightable because the
> picture itself is an act of creation (from the photograph). The content in
> the picture, if they are not protected themselves by other creation
> copyrights (e.g. art) or privacy laws (e.g. faces), are NOT copyrighted. So,
> you are not allowed to copy street view pics, you are not allowed to trace
> on google pics but you are allowed to say and do anything about the content
> of the pictures. About the original post, I can write a book titled "bizarre
> hedge in NY" where I can even say that I found it in StreetView, I can
> comment the hedge form, colors and whatever in 500 chapters, 2000 pages, I
> can publish that book and will not violate any Street View copyrights.

Pieren,

You have missed the quote above, from terms of use for Google
Streetview, which say that Google does not permit use of their
photographs to create derivative works.  You might think their claim
is overreaching.  You might think their claim is selfish.  But those
are the terms of their web service.

We, the OpenStreetMap community, respect their terms of use, as we
expect other projects to respect ours.

And so, We Do Not Use Their Services In Mapping For OSM.