I want to contact my local city hall and ask for permission to use some of their public data. I ordered a map with all the addresses and housenumbers for my town, for free. I asked about license, but got no response. (Probably didn't know what I was talking about) I realize I need to ask the person in charge of information. But what is it they need to do? "Release it under the CC-BY-SA", what is that in real terms? Put it on their website with the CC-BY-SA logo? That might be a hassle for them. Can they send it to me with the logo? Can they just say to me it is OK to use? Is there a straightforward way of getting this done? asked 14 Jan '12, 01:58  TheOddOne2 edited 14 Jan '12, 01:59 |
One Answer:
Most people in administration don't know anything about copyright. If someone can't answer your question they have to send the request to someone who can. Get a statement saying that the map is "Public Data" or "without copyright". If this is not possible then a statement giving OpenStreetMap permission to use the data to make a map that can be released in our term. answered 14 Jan '12, 12:22  Gnonthgol ♦ |
Thank you for your answer, Gnonthgol! I think the subtext was "don't ask, we don't care". But he was not aware that its a huge difference to use something for a commercial thing than to release it as CC-BY-SA.
So a statement in an e-mail is sufficient for OSM? I'll take that as the truth until someone state otherwise :)
Thanks!