On Sun, 29 May 2011 18:22:39 +0100, Moray Allan <mo...@sermisy.org> wrote: > On Sun, May 29, 2011 at 5:55 PM, Dejan Marjanovic > <dejan.marjano...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Regarding the POI, company Global GPS made them, and they are sold to > > Garmin, and *freely given* to us (me, debconf), we can use them > > whatever we like expect sell them... That is the most complete POI > > database of Banja Luka. > > http://pokit.etf.ba/get/80389cfaab4086603bad185ac0af68de.png > > Translation: "Here you go, 584 POI's of Banja Luka as I have promised..." > > > > POI: Global GPS (extracted from map their own server for > > DebConf11.com, not associated with Garmin in any way) > > Thank you for clearing up this detail. That appears to show that we > can legally use the data, yes, which was my immediate concern. If we > can't sell the data, they can't be under a DFSG-free licence, but we > have already used completely non-free maps before, so that's not a > regression. (People asked before about the contractual relationship > between Global GPS and Garmin, but if we're only good-faith users of > the data then that's not a big legal issue for us.) > > I will leave it to Phil and others to argue (again) the case that we > should go further and use only DFSG-free map data!
Well, the site is now using OSM as it's background, which seems like it ought to be a step forward. Unfortunately it's currently doing so in violation of the OSM license, since it's still not showing the attribution (as I pointed out in an earlier mail), but that's trivial to fix. As for the use of non-free POIs -- well, I suppose the main argument against using them as rendered at the moment is that the data is _so_ complete that you cannot see the map any more ;-) Personally, I'd prefer we used data that we can fix, as we do in pretty much all other things -- having these POIs overlaid on OSM duplicates some data, and risks cross-contamination. For instance, if the POI database says that a particular thing is in one place, and OSM says it's in another, what do we do? If someone simply moves the point in OSM to match the POI database's data, then they've presumably violated the copyright on the POI data[1], and contaminated OSM at the same time. On the other hand, if the completeness of the POI data actually makes a material difference to people, then it's probably better that they are able to find things than that we maintain some sort of data purity, and they get lost as a result. How about if the site disables the display of the non-free data by default, and offers a "show non-free POI database" button? That way people can decide for themselves if they'd rather stay lost, or use the non-free data. That would also allow us to collect the locations of the places that people are most likely to want to go, and add them as a database of free POIs, which would make for a less cluttered and possibly more useful default map. Cheers, Phil. [1] I say "then they've presumably violated the copyright" because the OSM license allows this: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Legal_FAQ#Can_I_charge_for_distributing_OSM_data_or_data_derived_from_OSM_data.3F which would seem to violate the "whatever we like except sell them" condition. -- |)| Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560] http://www.hands.com/ |-| HANDS.COM Ltd. http://www.uk.debian.org/ |(| 10 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London E18 1NE ENGLAND
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