[OSM-talk] Data copied from Google Maps

[Ian Sergeant]

On 5 November 2012 07:20, Christopher Woods (IWD)
<christof at infinitus.co.uk> wrote:

...

> For simple pieces of factual data like that, obviously in the public domain
> before Google began to compile their own imagery, my gut feeling is that
> this is arguably OK to do in a pinch.

...

And my gut feeling is that it is arguable that a organisation that has
an army of lawyers, may construe that a million OSMers coordinating to
use Google StreetView to build a competing mapping product is indeed a
breach of its StreetView licence.

But neither your gut feeling nor mine matters very much.  We could
both be wrong.   Us playing amateur lawyers just doesn't advance the
project.

That's why the only position that makes sense (for anything less than
100% unencumbered public domain data) is to seek permission from the
data owner or to go and do the survey.

My feeling is that most OSMers would rather take the time, put in the
effort, and make sure the result is free and open beyond question,
rather than take shortcuts that put a shadow over our project.

Ian.