Mapping the World

Re:Mapping the World by alex_duf on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @04:47PM (#8853520)

I'm surprised they didn't even mention openstreetmap. I know airbnb is a for profit company but most likely neighborhoods and oceans are already mapped. (Europe is particularly well mapped)

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Re:Mapping the World by jpatokal on Wednesday January 07, 2015 @07:21PM (#8854269)

OSM's convoluted licensing might expose them to the "risk" of having to contribute back their contributions though, plus (if they try to keep in sync) run the risk of others' changes running roughshod over their finely tuned model. This way they retain full control.

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Re:Mapping the World by dbaupp on Thursday January 08, 2015 @01:47AM (#8855283)

It doesn't seem that they will have to contribute them back, just possibly, use the same license (which is possibly equivalent/just as bad):

> You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt our data, as long as you credit OpenStreetMap and its contributors. If you alter or build upon our data, you may distribute the result only under the same licence. The full legal code explains your rights and responsibilities.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

Although IANAL, and it's not clear to me if rendering an independent set of data on top of the unchanged OSM data layer (i.e. effectively render two maps, on with some transparent sections) counts as building on top of the OSM database. So maybe they wouldn't even need to use the ODbL for their own data.

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Re:Mapping the World by rmc on Thursday January 08, 2015 @07:05AM (#8856023)

it's not clear to me if rendering an independent set of data on top of the unchanged OSM data layer (i.e. effectively render two maps, on with some transparent sections) counts as building on top of the OSM database

If you render OSM data with a unique map style, and produce an image, then you have made a "Produced Work" and you only have to attribute OSM, and nothing else. You can make it so people can't copy it if you'd like.

If you make a new database by combing OSM with something else, that new DB is ODbL.

Just showing something on top of OSM doesn't mean it's derived from OSM.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Legal_FAQ

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Re:Mapping the World by Doctor_Fegg on Thursday January 08, 2015 @04:34AM (#8855647)

It doesn't.

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Re:Mapping the World by rmc on Thursday January 08, 2015 @04:16AM (#8855593)

The absolute worst the OSM licence would require would be to allow people to download and distribute your dataset under ODbL. You are not required to enter it into the OSM database. At an absolute worst, you can maintain, and fully control the data, in this (ODbL licenced) dataset, without any worry of anyone changing it.

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