Ok, Now I got you, basically anybody that might be able to claim to be copyright holder of any data we put into the database might be able to open a lawsuit against us to exhaust us out of business, not necessary to win the case. With the list of potential sources of information that can be claimd copied, and even without hard evidence, than we must be extra carefull in screaning the sources we use. We know for a fact that Google, Yahoo, TeleAtlas, Ordinance Survey, any other mapping authority, and large commercial maps, have enough resources each to keep a case like this going for years.
We must find a procedure to avoid such lawsuits. i.e. "show us where some community members have copied you and we remove the information from your sources" kind of response to any claims of copyright infrigements. Isn't there a "legal" team in OSMF? This should be on their table. - I think we have to have a planned response to claimed copyright infridgements, even if we have a strict policy about no using copyrighted sources. On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 9:40 AM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot...@gmail.com> wrote: > 2010/1/6 Aun Johnsen <li...@gimnechiske.org>: >> But I ask if it is valid for OSM or not, I know SCO vs * was extreme, >> but that doesn't mean it is valid for us. Can you point on some >> similarities in evidence, cercumstances, factors that can make this a >> valid case? If not it is the same as Larry Flynt vs America or most >> lawsuits. > > I'm not claiming there are any simularitied between the legal action > SCO was undertaking and OSM, I was claiming it's possible to launch a > friverlous lawsuit with no basis and keep it going on for years and > effectively bankrupt the competition in the process. > _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
