How can it be that google copies my maps while the other way around is restructed? I uploaded a fake testcase. Is this their normal workaround?
Please show us your testcase.
please take a look at 5.60388, -55.14536 and 5.60388, -55.14536.
The mining area is a restricted area where only classified maps are available from. Only a few people have acces to that maps. While the mining roads where not on the map before our project I digitized the old maps. The result in Google resembles remarkable precise my openstreetmap editing The lakes and paths are almost equal. This can only happen if there is another guy interested in the same are making the same edits as I did.
Antother remarkable item are the little lakes at 5.85767, -55.22055. They are under construction. They where for sure not on any map before June this year, because they did partly did not even exist but on a project sketch I got from my client. Know they show up on Google maps as a sort of redigitized shape.
I know added a railroad close to Parabello. In Surnam are no railroads, wait to se if it shows up
You could have given a permalink to the coordinates (which are both the same).
I’ve taken a look at the map compare tool but can hardly see any evidence that this area has been copied by Google. OSM misses some roads Google Maps has and Google Maps misses some roads OSM has.
I have been suspicious recently about Google. A track at the rear of my house that had previously not appeared on any map other than OSM, appeared on Google maps. However, further investigation showed that although very similar, the data does not appear to have been traced from OSM as there are new details that are not on OSM and details on OSM that are not on Google in my area. However, I have laid some harmless booby traps just in case 
Richard his experience is quite similar. The maps are not traced 100% but it is rather impossible to for some information to show up in two different maps when the source data is only at one person. The “booby trap” idea is interesting. One possibility could be that there are mapmakers using the Google editor with an OSM back ground map and tracing by hand. Even that process can be automated with altering minor changes to keep up the appearance that it’s new info. We’ll see if one of the booby trap bangs.
I doubt the usefulness of creating errors deliberately. In my opinion one strength of OSM compared to most other maps has always been it’s correctness. If you introduce errors deliberately you will give up this strength and harm the project.
I agree with scai. We can beat Google, Yahoo, Mapquest etc. by being more correct, accurate and timely.
On reflection, I agree with scai and T99. I have removed my “booby trap” .
I thought Google was allowed to take data from OSM? Or did that change with the change in licence a year or two back?
I’m pretty certain Google /used/ to take data - I seem to recall edits I’d made turning up in Google.
Perhaps they used to, then stopped when the licence changed, and that is why you are seeing things that are similar to OSM edits but not exactly the same…
Just a thought anyway. Personally, I’d be happy for my work to make it into Google Maps and any other mapping website. I’m doing it for the general benefit of my community after all.
Nick
Google is allowed to take our data, but only if they attribute OpenStreetMap as the source and comply with the share-alike requirements of our license. So as long as there is no “Map data by OpenStreetMap, …” anywhere to be seen on Google Maps, they cannot (legally) have incorporated our data.
The license has not changed yet. Most mappers have already given permission to the OSM Foundation to change the license, but the actual change will happen in April 2012.