tl;dr It may be not OK to import data from Wikidata despite that this database is CC0 (adding wikipedia/wikidata tags is still OK, but this connection is mostly useless for adding data into OSM).
It may be necessary to revert some imports of data from Wikidata ---- Note: it is likely that some of what I write below is misunderstanding, I am not a lawyer. I would be happy to discover that I am wrong and that Wikidata is usable for us. In UK and EU putting effort into compiling a database grants a property right called sui generis database right (very similar to copyright). There is no protection like that in USA. A database may be protected by copyright when the selection or arrangement is original and creative. "One classic example of a database that is not protected by copyright is a telephone directory. Arranging names, addresses, and telephone numbers of subscribers in alphabetical order is not creative enough to meet even the low threshold required for copyright protection. This is true no matter how much work went into the creation of the telephone directory, or any other database. Copyright law protects the creative expression in a work, not the labor that went into its creation (or the author’s "sweat of the brow" as it’s often referred to in the law)." https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikilegal/Database_Rights https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sui_generis_database_right ---- So, it may be legal in USA to take database from EU and/or UK protected by sui generis database, merge it with other databases and publish it as CC0 database. In addition, Wikidata seems to rely heavily on assumption that individual facts are not protected by copyright so it is OK to copy individual facts to build a database ("non-copyrightable facts"). As I understand doing this is legal in USA the resulting CC0 work would not be free to use in EU and/or UK due to sui generis database right. ---- AFAIK Wikidata is one of examples where this happens and unfortunately it is not OK to import data from this source - it is necessary to check that used data does not include data from sources protected by EU and/or UK property law (and there is no easy way to do that what makes Wikidata mostly useless for importing data) ---- It also seems that unlike Wikimedia Commons that handles copyright issues very well there is no documentation explaining how Wikidata data may be used Wikimedia Commons good explanation of copyright issues: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reusing_content_outside_Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Copyright_rules Wikidata no explanation of copyright issues that I was able to find (either I missed something of Wikidata community is not concerned about copyright and other property laws): https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Copyright https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Wikidata:Project_chat&oldid=576665752#Wikidata:Copyright_rules_.28AKA_-_is_Wikidata_CC0_in_Europe.3F.29 _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
