On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 12:25 PM, Ed Avis <e...@waniasset.com> wrote: >>Exactly. And the copyright (or DB right) in the original data is an >>entirely separate issue. > > Yes - it's quite separate - you do not receive any licence to the original > data > but you do get a licence to all copyright interest in the small bit of map > you received
As you have correctly pointed out with regard to the contributor terms, you aren't allowed to grant a license on someone else's copyright without permission. So a license from, say, MapQuest, granting you permission to use the tiles under CC-BY-SA, only covers MapQuest's copyright, which only extends to the material contributed by MapQuest, not to the preexisting material already in the work. > since you have not even looked at the original data you cannot > be infringing copyright in that (similar to 'clean room' rules) Depends to what extent map data is copyrightable. If I write a score, and someone else records a piano rendition of the score, and a third person converts that recording back to a score, that score is still copyrighted by the original author. Clean room rules involve using only uncopyrightable factual data. There are arguments on both sides as to whether or not tracing a map constitutes copying only uncopyrightable facts (personally I lean strongly toward the side that says it does, but I wouldn't be willing to bet my business on that without receiving substantial legal advice). In any case, clean room rules don't apply to database rights. So if you live in a jurisdiction with database rights, you can pretty much throw away that argument. _______________________________________________ legal-talk mailing list legal-talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/legal-talk