Stefan wrote: > Judging by the amount of “I've just used google maps to ..." > diary posts on osm.org this *will* lead to trouble otherwise.
Yep. Potlatch 1 always checked for the presence of 'google' in the tile URL and refused to display the tile if so. When Potlatch 2 was first released, we hadn't added this check (it was a TODO but I was also slightly intrigued to see what would happen). Sure enough, within about a week, people were jubilantly posting "Potlatch 2 allows you to trace from Google!" in the Russian OSM forum - and were doing so. When asked to stop, one typical response is "I don't think it's illegal and I don't care". So I added the block back in, with some degree of reluctance but no great surprise. I think Frederik's right when he says "Problem is, if it is *too* easy to load Google backgrounds, we (as a project) could be accused of knowingly inviting tracing from Google". We can't prevent it entirely, but if OSM is ever sued for infringement it will aid our case enormously to show that we have taken reasonable measures to discourage it. That's not too far-fetched: I believe OSMF did recently receive a "cease and desist" from one geodata supplier who believes their rights have been infringed. With that in mind, I believe the block in Potlatch is a responsible decision to help the future of the project, and it would gladden me to see JOSM do the same. cheers Richard -- View this message in context: http://gis.638310.n2.nabble.com/Fwd-Filter-Google-from-Imagery-tp5965655p5965776.html Sent from the JOSM Development mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ josm-dev mailing list josm-dev@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/josm-dev
