rob potter <pots...@gmail.com> writes: > *Lawyers have raised a concern about these conditions, as the road data use > is supplied to our emergency services fire and ambulance. We have not > started using the information but we are implementing a system of > validation and change detection, then produce an authoritative version for > other agency consumption.* > *Unlawful and other unauthorized uses include a clause "Operate dangerous > businesses such as emergency services or air traffic control, where the use > or failure of the Services could lead to death, personal injury or > significant property damage;" and "Store data available through the > Services in order to evade these Terms (including aiding anyone else in > doing so); or"*
As others pointed out those are website terms. You want to use the data, not the website, and you should read the Open Database License. 1) As you go down this path, think about the relationship between the data is authoritative (which is a procedural/legal attribute) the data is accurate the data can be fixed easily when it is not accurate Authoritative data is not necessarily better. Yes, OSM can be modified by random people but that does not mean that on balance it is lower quality. 2) Anyone is welcome to improve OSM. When doing so, OSM's norms should be followed. It is abusive to change OSM contrary to OSM norms to suit your purposes. (You didn't say this, but it happens.) A typical example is "Land Manager X does not want trail Y to show on the map". OSM maps reality. If you want to edit OSM, the local community I'm sure can help and you are in the right place. It is ok to add attributes and render a map that omits trails that are not maintained by land managers for your own purposes (and to publish it). It's really "remove trail from database" that is not ok. It would be entirely reasonable if you find things that are wrong to add notes. Create an account (people have accounts, not orgs) so you have accepted the Contributor Terms and others can rely on the note content. Train people on what those terms mean, in terms of not entering copyrighted information and not copying for other maps. It's really hard to get through to people that taking information from Google Maps is not ok, partly becauase people use Google Maps without reading and understanding their terms. (Really you should have your lawyers review the Google Terms and probably require training for your people before they are allowed to use that.) 3) Your use of data is welcome. If you modify the data -- to produce a curated/checked version -- then you should a) be clear that people are using OSM-Victoria or some such, especially since at any given time things will be right on OSM (because they were just fixed) and wrong in your data. b) If you distribute modified data you must make the underlying database available c) If you modify/curate and don't distribute, it would be polite to make the modified database available (as in just download with no registration, no agreements). If you are not going to be willing to do this, then it is socially probably best for you not to use OSM data (my opinion, probably shared in part, not shared in part). _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
