In my opinion, placing the information into the OSM database is not the issue. The issue is more of being able to gather the data legally. In areas where the yahoo imagery is of sufficient resolution to allow tracing, I don't see how any entity could put a case together making it illegal for OSM to include the data in the database. Knowledge is not illegal.
Trespassing on private property in order to gather GPS traces on the other hand could land you in trouble. The data obtained is not illegal, but rather the manner in which it was obtained is where one runs up against the legal issue. If the land owner has no objections to gathering the GPS traces, then there should be no issues. I have captured and added many ways in private lands, such as refineries[1], mines[2], oil leases[3], and even Department of National Defense bombing ranges[4]. My access to these areas was always with permission from the land owner. I gather the information, upload and enter the information into the database, and then use the subsequent maps in my reports for my employer, and customer. It works out really nicely, as I can create maps of the area where I am working, and then produce reports with background maps that no one else has available. As a bonus, the OSM project gets more information included in the database, and other uses have access to the same maps. I've had queries about where I got the maps from, as other co-workers have looked for maps, and were unable to find them. James VE6SRV [1] http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=14&lat=53.80445&lon=-113.09712&layers=B00000TFFFFF [2] http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=13&lat=53.57742&lon=-117.48367&layers=B00000TFFFFF [3] http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=12&lat=59.9385&lon=-122.94594&layers=B00000TFFFFF [4] http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=10&lat=54.85922&lon=-110.59387&layers=B00000TFFFFF _______________________________________________ Talk-ca mailing list Talk-ca@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ca
