[Foundation-l] Copyrighted maps and Derived works

[Nikola Smolenski]

Дана Thursday 01 April 2010 20:30:10 Aude написа:
> There are differences in how data (incl.    map data) is treated under
> US law and how UK/European law treat data and data collections/databases
>
> Wikipedia is operates under US copyright law, w/ servers and the
> foundation US based (not sure how the Amsterdam servers fit under
> laws). In the US, facts such as listings in the phone book and
> geocoordinates are not copyrightable.  I think wikipedians deriving
> these facts from google maps or google earth is okay under us law
>
> On the otherhand, openstreetmap is based in the uk with servers in
> London, and operates under uk/european law.  I know that databases and
> data collections do get some protection under law there.  Thus
> openstreetmap regards databases of coordinates (eg google) as having
> protection and disallows google maps as a source for osm
>
> Although deriving geocoordinates from google maps for wikipedia (under
> us law) is okay, I would prefer not doing so and use osm, NASA

This is so wrong on several levels. Databases can be copyrighted under US law, 
facts are not copyrighted under UK law, an image is not a database, deriving 
coordinates from Google Maps is OK under other laws and so on.