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I've got over ten years work on the Islands of Guernsey, ( which I'm busy updateing ) then I've got the Island of Jersey, next to be uploaded. Both these islands are off the coast France. I'm a freelance Cartographer running a small business. Does my work become available to all who wish to make a profit from maps and the data available on OSM? What's the scour here?
This question is marked "community wiki".
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First of all, GPS tracks themselves are unlikely to attract any copyright at all since they are just an automated recording. Also, GPS tracks are just a raw product that helps us in surveying, they are not an end product that anyone is interested in. But talking about OSM and licensing. If you contribute anything to OSM, then that falls under the free CC-BY-SA license (currently), and probably from April this year under the ODbL license. Both these licenses mean that the data you contribute can be used by anyone, for any purpose, including any commercial endeavour. Both these licenses have a share-alike component intended to make sure that whoever enriches the data has to make that available under a free license as well. There are many reasons why we allow commercial use (like, for example, Wikipedia does as well). One is that we want OSM to be widely used in order to attract more contributors. Another is that the distinction between "commercial" and "noncommercial" is very hard to make. Enter "license" in the search box above to find more pointers dealing with the license. I think aerial is created according to commercial or strategic value,There is a Bing coverage page in the wiki that explains this and the quality of it link http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Bing/Coverage
(22 Jan '12, 22:22)
andy mackey
Thanks for the info. I've had all sorts of problems with more than one company trying to kill me off commercially. I'm new to this GIS stuff. I'm an old fashioned cartographer who started with pen and paper. I have to say the quality of cartography in GIS systems leave me cold. They are far from a work of art. Google Earth mapping is sterile but one must get on with it and hope things get better. OSM is, I have to say worse. Let's hope it gets better. My web site: www.cimaps.co.uk
(22 Jan '12, 23:50)
dave moran
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OSM is not really a cartography project - it's a data project. The idea is that you can then take the data and make beautiful maps from it yourself, whether that be with Mapnik, Maperitive, Illustrator or whatever.
(23 Jan '12, 10:08)
Richard ♦
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OSM is very much about cartography, my fellow mappers make beautiful maps with the tools available i.e. Potlatch, JOSM and Mapnik. OSM also gives you the data which is nice, but that data is used by a very small part of the community. OSM is a lot better than Google when you want details, but not a very good Taxi and Truck map.
(24 Jan '12, 09:43)
emj
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Thanks guys for the info' I think we have this debate every time I go to mapping seminars. The old timers, like me, tend to be a bit sniffy about GIS, the GIS guys tend to be sniffy and the old timers. Ha! Maps are not only a work of reference but a work of art. I'm never entirely happy with what I do I can always improve on the look but it's got to carry the information for which it was drafted. Getting out in the field is the best bit. Having someone pass you in the street deeply involved in reading your work is the next.
(24 Jan '12, 12:44)
dave moran
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