Well, it turned it to be a lot easier than I was thinking it would be! I
reached out to the contact listed on the Clearing House web site, using the
template in the wiki page, and he replied confirming that we have
permission to use the data. This is the text of the email exchange, and
I've also attached the raw .eml file.
From: Winters, Frank (ITS) frank.wint...@its.ny.gov
Date: July 17, 2020 22:30:24
Subject: RE: Interested in importing the Address Point data from the
Clearing House into OpenStreetMap
To: Skyler Hawthorne o...@dead10ck.com
CC: Coryell, Rodger (ITS) rodger.cory...@its.ny.gov, Fargione, Craig (ITS)
craig.fargi...@its.ny.gov
Hi Skyler, nice to hear form you. We would very much like the SAM address
points to be included in Open Street Map. The permitted use of the points
is quite simple. You may use the points for any lawful purpose. While we do
our best to maintain a comprehensive and accurate set of address points
with our limited resources we know it has shortcomings. See the metadata
for the liability disclaimer.
We generally post quarterly updates to the data set.
Frank Winters
Geographic Information Officer
Office of Information Technology Services
W. Averell Harriman State Office Campus
Bldg. 5 - Floor 1
Albany, NY 12226
518.242.5036 | 518.281.9140 m | frank.wint...@its.ny.gov
-Original Message-
From: Skyler Hawthorne Sent: Friday, July 17, 2020 6:30 PM
To: Winters, Frank (ITS)
Subject: Interested in importing the Address Point data from the Clearing
House into OpenStreetMap
ATTENTION: This email came from an external source. Do not open attachments
or click on links from unknown senders or unexpected emails.
Hello Mr Winters,
Thank you for your part in making the GIS data for New York State available
to the public through the Clearing House project!
I am a contributor to the OpenStreetMap project [1], a collaborative open
project to create a global geodata set freely usable by anyone [2].
We respect the IP rights of others and I write to ask if we can use this
data. There does not appear to be any explicit information about the
license under which the data sets in the Cleaning House web site are
distributed. It's unclear what the terms are for its use, and specifically
whether or not it is public domain, and if it is permitted to import into
the OpenStreetMap project and redistribute to the world under an open license.
At the most simple, I would seek a statement like this:
"The New York State GIS Program Office [or the relevant NYS department(s)]
has no objections to geodata derived in part from the GIS Clearing House
data sets being incorporated into the OpenStreetMap project geodata
database and released under a free and open license" [1]
I also ask that whatever statement you are prepared to make can be made
public for information purposes.
Below is a fact sheet. If you would like any more information, I will do my
best to help or can ask our project's License Working Group to get in touch
with you.
Regards,
Skyler Hawthorne
Fact Sheet
[1] The OpenStreetMap project currently has over 750,000 registered
contributors worldwide. Our main website is https://www.openstreetmap.org
[2] We are mandated to make our geodata available in perpetuity under a
free and open licence. We are not allowed to use a commercial license, but
commercial organisations are allowed to use our data under similar terms.
[3] Our data is currently published under the Open Database License 1.0,
https://protect2.fireeye.com/v1/url?k=76761582-2a4eb33f-7674ecb7-000babd9fa3f-f71edf933744da0d=1=391ef603-5912-439f-b6e4-b8ac749598bd=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.opendatacommons.org%2Flicenses%2Fodbl%2F
[4] Most of our geodata is contributed by individuals. However, we are very
grateful when able to incorporate or derive from other geo-data datasets
where license terms are compatible.
[5] We formally attribute all such sources at
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Attribution, using any specific wording
if you request. We also try to provide a link to this page with any extract
of data from our database. However, for reasons of practicality, we do not
require end-users to repeat such attribution since it runs into hundreds.
[6] We also keep a public track of third party data use at
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Catalogue and usually have a
project page for each dataset, describing how we use it and whether there
are any license restrictions to be aware of.
[7] If you have any specific legal questions, the OpenStreetMap
Foundation's License Working Group can be reached at
le...@osmfoundation.org and will be glad to help.
On July 16, 2020 12:16:19 Kevin Kenny wrote:
(By the way, hi, Skyler, and welcome! You've stepped into a difficult
area - most programmers don't realize just how difficult until they've
waded in.
The legal situation in New York is _very_ complicated, because the key
court case that governs GIS data
