[OSM-talk] Data copied from Google Maps

[Jérome Armau]

If I remember correctly, at least part of the issue stems from the EU
database directive and the sui generis right:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_Directive#Sui_generis_right

Copyright protection is not available for databases which aim to be
> "complete", that is where the entries are selected by objective criteria:
> these are covered by *sui generis<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sui_generis>
> *database rights <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_rights>. While
> copyright protects the creativity of an author, database rights
> specifically protect the "qualitatively and/or quantitatively [a]
> substantial investment in either the obtaining, verification or
> presentation of the contents": if there has not been substantial investment
> (which need not be financial), the database will not be protected
> [Art. 7(1)]. Database rights are held in the first instance by the person
> or corporation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation> which made the
> substantial investment, so long as:
>
>    - the person is a national or domiciliary of a Member State or
>
>
>    - the corporation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation> is formed
>    according to the laws of a Member State and has its registered office or
>    principal place of business within the European Union.
>
> Article 11(3) provides for the negotiation of treaties to ensure
> reciprocal treatment outside the EU: as of 2006, no such treaty exists.
> The holder of database rights may prohibit the extraction and/or
> re-utilization of the whole or of a substantial part of the contents: the
> "substantial part" is evaluated qualitatively and/or quantitatively and
> reutilization is subject to the exhaustion of rights. Public lending is not
> an act of extraction or re-utilization. The lawful user of a database which
> is available to the public may freely extract and/or re-use insubstantial
> parts of the database (Art. 8): the holder of database rights may not place
> restrictions of the purpose to which the insubstantial parts are used.
> However, users may not "perform acts which conflict with normal
> exploitation of the database or unreasonably prejudice the legitimate
> interests of the maker of the database", nor prejudice any copyright in the
> entries.


Basically, even if the data itself is public domain, the database that
contains it may be protected under EU law - this is to protect the amount
of work that went into the data collection. The whole issue is the
definition of a "substantial part" of the database. Are street names a
substantial part of the street view data?

On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 6:46 AM, Pieren <pieren3 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 3:07 PM, Janko Mihelić <janjko at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Imagine if Google didn't do that, you would have to find your street
> amongst
> > billions other Streetview photos. Not possible. So you can't say you
> aren't
> > using their referencing process.
>
> If you deduce the street position and shape from their photos into
> OSM, you are right. But if it is about checking street signs, the
> method how the picture is delivered by Google doesn't change any
> thing. The street sign remains in the public domain and is not
> copyrightable just because its photo has been referenced (that would
> be the same if we could read the signs from aerial imagery). They
> could be delivered by other means (e.g. "show me all pictures of
> street x, town y"), it's not interfering with the content. Or do you
> suggest that any web site referenced by Google becomes its property
> because you found it through Google Search and its huge web sites
> index ?
> Usually, in such discussion coming back and forth, this is the last
> argument trying to explain how a public domain material would become
> sudenly copyrightable. It's impossible.
>
> Pieren
>
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