License / Copyright ??? - OSM data for commercial use artistic map

General talk
1

Dear All,

This might have been discussed several times, hence sorry for raising this question again, but I really would like to make sure that I’m in compliance with the rules of the OSM license. (Also, I’m not a programmer, so, sorry for formulating the details of my envisaged project with lack/inproper use of the programming jargon.)

So, here is the list of things I am planning to do:

I would like to create an artistic map

  1. based on OSM data - I would need a world map, with territories of countries and potentially subdivisions as well
  2. I would alter the OSM data by defining new, custom subdivisions in certain areas, like cutting half a country (or continent, like Antarctica) not along any currently available “line”, but according to my wish
  3. I would like to put copyrighted images onto these subdivisions (with OpenLayers)
  4. I would remove uneccessary detail by not rendering some types of features, ie. I don’t want any other data to be displayed on the map, but the original and custom-made subdivision borders and the images
  5. however, in the background I would like to still use the OSM data, so that users could search, eg. the address of their home, then the map would display the place where they live, but covered with the image I defined to cover that particular place with (ie. not displaying any roads etc.)
  6. I would expect volume of use too high to be supportable by OSM’s tile servers, therefore I would have my own tile server
  7. Also, because of point 6, I would create separate, own search server as well, not to overwhelm Nominatim’s servers (btw, I would really appreciate if you could help me with auto-complete search, is there any advanced solution already?)

So the end-result would look like this world map of flags, with the exception that I would make it available online as a dynamic map and in print as well:

So, my questions are:

  1. does this project qualify to be a produced work as defined in use case 2 of the license? http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/License/Use_Cases#Case_2:_I_want_to_publish_something_based_on_OSM_and_nothing_else
  2. if not, then which use case is the applicable here?
  3. in either case, what are the consequences of the license to my rights over parts of the project (database, separate copyrighted images and the overall look of the map)? what should be shared freely? Can I reserve the right to the overall image of the map to be sold eg. as a printed poster?
  4. Also, does OpenLayers’ license (in which I would define the new layer of images) interfere with this idea to be used for commercial use and reserve the rights for the end product?

Sorry if the questions should be “super-obvious” based on the wikis/forum etc., they aren’t really self-explanatory for me! :slight_smile:

Thank you very much in advance!
Best regards,
underclover

2

My interpretation (IANAL) of the license in the context of your project is:

  • The altered OSM data constitutes a derivative database. ODbL requires you to publish this database, again using ODbL. (Alternatively, you could publish an algorithm to obtain that database, but that only works if your custom subdivisions can be described by an algorithm.)

  • The rendering is a produced work, so you can choose any license for it and for your copyrighted images. The only requirement is that you include attribution for OpenStreetMap according to what is written here: http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

  • The OSM data for your Nominatim installation does not require any attribution beyond what’s already covered above.