Richard and Sam beat me to the response, but here's my understanding anyways:
You can't copyright fact. The fact that a trail has some name is not copyright-able. Collections of facts are copyright-able, however. Let's say you come across a single trail marker such as that in [http://www.travelpod.com/travel-photo/tombuttle/9/1228407840/10_trail_marker.jpg/tpod.html], or a set of individual trail markers, like in [http://blog.myczechrepublic.com/images/trebon-trail-markers.jpg]. These are stating facts (and could be considered different objects, even when they are nailed to a single tree), and therefore are not copyright (at least not in the Canadian/US system). In order to collect the name of a trail, you would need to visit the trail head to read the marker sign. Now let's say you come across a trail map board, such as [http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1120051478042125381wBnHBr]. This would be considered a collection of facts, and is therefore protected under copyright. You don't need to visit a trail head because somebody has already collected the facts for you and assembled them into one place. Adam On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 12:02 PM, Chris Bruce <[email protected]> wrote: > Bump! > > Anyone able to give me some guidance on this? > > Many thanks. > > --- > > On 11/02/2011 12:36, Chris Bruce wrote: >> >> Hi there, >> >> I've been doing a bit of mapping for the project in the UK, adding some >> roads and trails generally from my area of mid-Wales. We have a bit of a >> copyright problem with "naming" features in the UK that we have actually >> surveyed. You can see the question and the responses on this link: >> http://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/1286/determining-the-identity-of-features. >> The government is being a bit more open and has released some data but there >> seems to be some discussion about a possible conflict between its licence >> and the OSM licence. >> >> I'm in Canada for a while and thought I'd map some trails while I'm here >> per your WikiProject Canada page. I'm hiking in Provincial Parks and >> National Parks in BC at the moment. I guess there will also be Regional >> Parks. At the trailhead there are generally maps naming the trails and >> features. Having hiked and tracklogged the trail am I permitted to "name" >> the trail or feature in OSM from the information found at the trailheads? >> (Or do I ask somebody who looks at the sign at the trailhead and then tells >> me?!!!?) >> >> Also I'm aware that NRCan has released a huge amount of data for use. Can >> I similarly "name" and draw features from information obtained from those >> sources, e.g. the Topo tiffs? >> >> The reason I ask here is that I know that you guys (authorities!) seem >> somewhat open about copyright licensing and the uses to which official >> cartographic data is put and some guidelines for me would be great. >> >> Thanks for your time... > > > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-ca mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ca > _______________________________________________ Talk-ca mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ca
