An update on this. We just had a part admin part technical meeting to take this specific matter further and will be communicating directly with the relevant parties shortly.
Mikel will be posting a more general email about the process of investigating and dealing with data abuse/vandalism etc as there are a number of aspects that need community input. Cheers Andy >-----Original Message----- >From: [email protected] [mailto:legal-talk- >[email protected]] On Behalf Of Albertas Agejevas >Sent: 07 February 2009 2:23 PM >To: [email protected] >Subject: Re: [OSM-legal-talk] Mass import of TeleAtlas data > >Dear all, > >On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 03:18:14PM +0300, Albertas Agejevas wrote: >> I hope this is the right place for these matters. >> >> I have found evidence that user Pranas seems to have uploaded lots of >> Google Maps/TeleAtlas data into OSM. > >So, almost 6 months have passed since my alert about the obvious >data transfer from TeleAtlas to OSM. Since then we have exchanged a >dozen of emails with Andy Robinson. However, nothing appears to have >been done in terms of removing even the most obviously copied data out >of the database. As far as I know, the original offender has >responded to Andy's requests, but failed to provide GPS tracks for >most areas he has mapped. Andy informed me that after the Pranas >account has been suspended, around 50 accounts were registed in a >short amount of time. Copies of TeleAtlas data continued to appear in >OSM, with 2 - 3 users working on each town, more in larger towns. Now >most Lithuanian towns and cities have been copied. > >When I contacted him, the user who started the upload did not claim he >has a permission to upload the data, later to Andy he ostencibly >claimed that he has the tracks he made with the friend. None of the >later sock puppet accounts ever responded to my messages. > >In my original email, I provided a planned network of streets that is >not yet there on the ground, although has made it to the TeleAtlas >data already, and got copied into OSM: > >http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&ie=UTF8&ll=56.00042,21.08855&spn=0.017158,0 >.040641&t=h&z=15 >http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=56.00042&lon=21.08855&zoom=15&layers=B00F >TF > >I have verified with people who go there often that these streets are >not there yet. The area looks the same as captured on the Google >satellite imagery. There are some more houses along the existing >streets, but the new streets have not yet been built. > >There's one more very obviously copied place in Kanunas: > >http://www.maps.lt/map/query.aspx?action=showobject&objID=simple%24x5b21322 >1f85f6bfa >http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=54.923282,23.942063&spn=0.004452,0.01041 >8&t=h&z=17 >http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=54.923&lon=23.9422&zoom=17&layers=B000FTF > >The satellite photos and GIS-Centras (state mapping company) data >demonstrate that a part of the park has been converted to residential >housing at least several years ago, However user gediminast1 mapped >paths that match those in Google Maps data and going right through >houses built in the area! > >Here are some of the user names that have been used to upload the >suspect data: > > kazlauskas gediminast1 janina1 musi_ke fonasgraoz darinabod lazzymoon > btnb4683 povilas lordesvona vejuvejas gorygary johtmoris > >When I last checked, none of these had anything on their user page, >and have uploaded no traces. Grep for them in the Lithuania excerpt >(http://download.geofabrik.de/osm/europe/lithuania.osm.bz2): each of >them has been used just for two-three times to upload several tens or >hundereds of ways. > >I am bringing this up in the public forum again as our correspondence >with the OSMF secretary Andy Robinson appears to have no results. On >7 October 2008 Andy informed me that OSMF was going to ask these >50-ish suspect users to provide proof that they are legitimate >contributors and delete their data if no satisfactory response had >been received in 7 days. However, as you can see from my examples >above, 4 months past the copied data is still in the database. > >I'm afraid that this can damage the whole project, or at the very >least the Lithuanian dataset I'm working on. If you are not, read >this: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_Sweet_Symphony#Song_credits > http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Copyright_Easter_Eggs#OS_vs_AA > >Best regards, >Albertas > >_______________________________________________ >legal-talk mailing list >[email protected] >http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/legal-talk > >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG - www.avg.com >Version: 8.0.233 / Virus Database: 270.10.19/1940 - Release Date: 02/08/09 >17:57:00 _______________________________________________ legal-talk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/legal-talk
