Yet, by 1 click (Open in iD editor), I am in iD, editing the map using the CC BY-NC imagery. When I click Save, the seemingly illegally used imagery is clearly stated:
However, the same paragraph of their about page also claims that “All imagery contained in OIN is licensed CC-BY 4.0”, which is at odds with what is shown in the license field for that particular layer. If they were to resolve this contradiction, it would increase my confidence that they have their legal situation in order.
The clear part about us being allowed to trace seems to be an all-encompassing waiver that should make use in OSM acceptable, but definitely agree that it’s probably worth them clarifying between the two.
Thank you for pointing out the relevant section @fortera_au, that’s indeed somewhat reassuring. I’m not completely certain about the legal situation though, because
Good point, I’d like to hope that the intention is we have permission, and the wording is just poor, especially since HOT is involved in OAM. I’ll send an email and see if they can clarify/update the website.
Edit: Email sent, I’ve linked to the discussion, the example provided for the license mismatch, and mentioned the about page not being incredibly clear about how we can use OAM/OIN imagery.
@matheusgomesms that thread is indeed quite related; thanks for sharing it. I don’t mind if the threads are merged.
I looked into this topic a bit deeper, to check whether CC BY-NC 4.0 sources are actually used, or just offered by OpenAerialMap. It turns out CC BY-NC imagery is actually used. For example, see this changeset:
Those imagery tiles are the tiles offered here, under CC BY-NC 4.0. It is not immediately obvious (to me at least) that the offered tileset is the same one as the one cited in the above changeset, but after clicking on “Open in iD editor”, and observing the Custom tileset, the identity is clear:
I am not quite sure how frequently CC BY-NC imagery is used, I’ll need to put some more work into quantifying that. In this case, I was looking for a single example, without a through analysis.
Hi - this is Cristiano from HOT - we host and run OAM.
I appreciate all the feedback around the license issues in OAM. It has been a somehow grey area for which we very much welcome advice from OSMF, the LWG and any other data license expert in the community.
Initially OAM only had CC-BY 4.0 as license option. That has since been complemented by the waiver that each contributor agrees to when uploading imagery:
(I agree that the waiver as stated in the upload form may need to be aligned with the License section in the About page. I’m happy to take suggestions on how to rephrase it and make the changes)
Later we added the options for CC-BY-NC and CC-BY-SA to allow for more images to be included in OAM, in particular those released by Maxar under the Open Data Program. Their Activation Protocol includes a specific waiver for use of the imagery in OSM:
If there’s further concern, we are also happy to remove the direct links to iD and JOSM while we discuss and come to a comfortable agreement on this.
