[NUUG kart] Possible copyright infringements from user located in Kristiansand, Norway

[Frode Roxrud Gill]

Note: Cc to the Norwegian Openstreetmap mailinglist

The user "demivee", formerly known as "stallis", has mapped almost the
entire Kristiansand area and its surroundings. I would be very happy
for, and impressed by, this user if it turns out all edits are based
on free data, but I have a feeling this is not the case.

At two places in Songdalen, a county immediately west of Kristiansand,
common available maps ( http://openstreetmap.org/ ,
http://kart.gulesider.no/ , http://maps.google.com/ and
http://www.finn.no/kart ) have differed from reality and eachother,
and in both cases openstreetmap.org, with data provided by
stallis/demivee, has matched Google Maps and not reality. The places
mentioned are Koleknibvegen <URL:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=58.12998&lon=7.86443&zoom=17&layers=M
> (where Google Maps until a few weeks ago had a Y-shaped
never-existed road) and Fiolvegen <URL:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=58.171913&lon=7.828794&zoom=18&layers=M
> (where Google Maps still insists that Fiolvegen extends to Rv461
Songdalsvegen. It doesn't). I have personally corrected these places
(<URL: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/6262702 > and
<URL: http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/6262577 >, based
on <URL: http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/frodegill/traces/856349 >
and <URL: http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/frodegill/traces/856350 >)
I have no hard evidence, but these two locations, together with the
fact that the user has no public GPS Traces (even after kindly asked
to provide them), created lots of small roads (we usually don't map
single-house driveways), a sudden usernamechange after his username
was revealed in a thread on the Norwegian Openstreetmap mailinglist
(started by me, in Norwegian. <URL:
http://lists.nuug.no/pipermail/kart/2010-October/002049.html >, makes
me believe his edits are based on data from Google Maps or their
upstream provider.

To remove any doubt that the data in openstreetmap are free, I would
ask you investigate the user "demivee"/"stallis" and what he has
mapped in the Kristiansand area. For the state of the map in the
Kristiansand area, I would be very glad if my gut feeling is wrong..

-- 
Frode Roxrud Gill