>From: Pieren <[email protected]>
>To: Russ Nelson <[email protected]>
>Cc: Talk Openstreetmap <[email protected]>
>Sent: Wednesday, 6 May, 2009 16:17:51
>Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] Wikipedia POI import?
>
>On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 5:06 PM, Russ Nelson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>So, if I understand this discussion, I cannot create a POI based on
>Google aerial photography directly in OSM. But if I create my POI
>first in Wikipedia, then import it in OSM, it is permitted. Is that
>correct ?
I think there are two issues here, which are only partially related.
Firstly, there is what the relevant laws actually say on the matter. So for
example, the laws say that if Wikipedia licenses its data as CC-BY-SA we can
import it without worrying about it. If they didn't have the right to license
the data as such, that is primarily their problem and we only have to respond
if a court decides that this was improper and we should therefore remove the
data. I am fairly happy with doing a mass import of Wikipedia data on this
basis.
Secondly, there is the risk that a company, irrespective of what the laws say,
will start throwing lawsuits around. I am not convinced that Google would do
this in this case, but those from whom they license the data might do. It
doesn't matter whether they have a case or not, their claims could be
completely and utterly bogus. But once they've thrown their lawsuit, you are
then tied up in an expensive legal process from which it can be very hard to
escape unless your lawyers are bigger than theirs (or more accurately, the
pockets that pay your lawyers are deeper than the pockets that pay theirs).
Think of this as the "Microsoft" approach to the law. It is this risk that we
are more concerned about here, and this is what would make me wary of doing a
mass import. If our product is a threat to their profitability then they will
throw morals out of the Windows and do whatever they can to halt their
competitors, claiming that they have a moral duty to look
after the interests of their shareholders.
Much as I hate the fact that this is how it works, it's a sad fact of this
world that there are many large organisations who don't care about right or
wrong who also happen to have pretty deep pockets.
Cheers,
Donald
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