Further discussion on this topic is probably best relegated to the legal-talk list: http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/legal-talk
On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 01:23:05PM +0100, elvin ibbotson wrote: > Chris Hill is worried about copyright issues with climbing routes and > this is like lots of concerns I have seen expressed such as taking > street names from actual street signs rather than from copyrighted > material. If it's the name of the street, it's the name of the > street, no matter how or where it is communicated. Not only am I not > an expert on databases but I am equally ignorant of the finer points > of copyright law. But PLEASE! A street name cannot be copyright and > printing it on a piece of paper or causing it to appear on a screen > is hardly the stuff of intellectual property. Copyright isn't the ony kind of intellectual property. In general, copying *one* street name off of a map would certainly not be a violation of coypright -- you can't copyright facts -- but you can (in the UK, and other parts of the world) hold intellectual property in *collections of facts* (typically referred to as 'database right'). This means that deriving the 'one' street is not a violation, but deriving many could be seen to be a 'significant extract' which is in violation of those database rights. As I said, the legal-talk list is the best place to continue discussion on this topic, but it's not as clear cut and simple as it would be wonderful for it to be. <snip> >If not, I would like to see them sue. This statement is exactly the *opposite* of what the OSM Foundation probably feels. Lawsuits cost money. OSM doesn't have the kind of resources that allow it to consider defending a suit a reasonable path at this time, and thus, it takes the 'moral high ground' by avoiding all the issues involved and playing it completely safe, as is the best position for a project of this nature to take. Regards, -- Christopher Schmidt MetaCarta _______________________________________________ talk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk
