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This seems like it should have a simple answer, and usually I feel like I understand the basics of open license requirements, but looking through all the licensing information on "data' versus "produced work" and so forth is making this seem really complicated so me so I thought I'd ask specifically about what I'm doing.

I'm working on making a map for directions to my house. Here's the steps I'm taking:

  1. I went to OpenStreetMap.org, went to an area containing my house and the major roads around it, and exported a box of it to a SVG using the "Share" functionality.
  2. I opened that SVG in Inkscape and made some edits. Here is the nature of the edits I made:
    • I removed features that weren't needed for my map, like power distribution lines, since they would distract from my main purpose of showing people how to get to my house.
    • I added labels. These are labels of features that are generally already in the underlying data (and you would see if you zoomed in further or queried the underlying database or the like), but weren't in the export. That is, the specific roads leading from the main roads going to my house I labelled in big text, while most of the "minor" roads that wouldn't be relevant for people going to my house remained unlabelled. I also labeled some landmarks, like a solar farm and golf course that were already shown in a shaded region.
    • I added a "pinpoint"-type marker at my house to indicate the destination.
  3. I then want to post this edited SVG file on my web site alongside some text-based directions I already have and wrote myself.

So, my questions are:

  1. What credit text do I need to put on (or next to) the map? Is it just "“Base map and data from OpenStreetMap and OpenStreetMap Foundation”? The copyright page says that's what I need to do for "The map tiles in the 'standard style'" which is what I guess I'm using but I also made some changes to it.
  2. Is there some license I need to publish this completed SVG file under to comply with share-alike rules? I'd be fine even just putting it into the public domain, but I'm assuming I don't have the complete rights to do that? As the image does contain some work I've "added" to it in some sense I want to ensure that it's "legal" for me to "publish" with my edits (and I'm happy for others to re-use my work if for whatever reason that would make sense).

While I don't think it matters for this specific question, before making the export I have made some fixes to the roads near my house in the standard iD editor to make the map more complete and accurate in this area.

Thanks!

asked 20 Dec '20, 22:32

PeterCooperJr's gravatar image

PeterCooperJr
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accept rate: 0%

1

You may find the following questions in the FAQ useful:

(21 Dec '20, 19:41) InsertUser

@InsertUser Those describe how to credit if making my own map from the underlying OSM data, or if I use the OSM "default" rendering title directly. What I'm not seeing is how to credit if I take an export of the default rendering tiles and then modify it.

(21 Dec '20, 22:26) PeterCooperJr

I asked this on the legal-talk mailing list and got a good answer there:

https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/legal-talk/2021-January/009041.html

If I can summarize,

  1. Using that credit text is fine, even though I've tweaked the map some.
  2. There's no share alike requirement, I just need to ensure that I make clear that the parts of the file from OpenStreetMap have that attribution, and can disclaim or claim whatever copyright I want in the parts that are my own work.
permanent link

answered 08 Jan '21, 19:05

PeterCooperJr's gravatar image

PeterCooperJr
81117
accept rate: 0%

-3

Hi Excellent

permanent link

answered 22 Dec '20, 06:40

rahagol's gravatar image

rahagol
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accept rate: 0%

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question asked: 20 Dec '20, 22:32

question was seen: 1,397 times

last updated: 08 Jan '21, 19:05

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum