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Possible license infringement!!!

Posted by FraMauro on 18 October 2012 in English.

I noticed a thing that looks to me as a license infringement. I’ll post it here to raise the issue, as I’m not 100% sure.

The doubt that I have is on Popcorn Maker.

Popcorn Maker is “a creative tool that makes authoring interactive media pages as easy as point and click”. Practically it is like a video editor, that kind of tool that allows to mix several videos and to mix audio and music. The results is not (only) a video, but an html page with the video and other “enhancements”, like related web pager, images or MAPS.

They have a preview version on line. If you choose a template, you’ll see one of the demo videos.

Choose for example the “simple” template. From time 00:00:03 (i.e: three seconds) to time 00:00:05 you’ll see on the upper right part of the screen a Stamen map.

On the lower left part of the map you’ll find…. the Google logo.

On the lower right part of the map you’ll find…. the Google maps terms and conditions.

If you have doubts on the Stamen map, check the timeline (the lower part of the screen, in black). Each thing on the screen beyond the video appears as a block. The maps blocks are called “googlemap” blocks.

If you double click on the right block (the one from 00:00:03 to 00:00:05) you will find out that the “Map Mode” field is set to “Stamen Water colour” (and you can also select Stamen Toner).

In the example output the left of the timeline you will find a Stamen map again with Google logo and term and conditions link.

You will see also that the “Address” field is set to “alaska” followed by the notice “powered by Google”. That could be actually true, maybe the use the Google API to identify the coordinates.

On the Stamen website you can read “If you use the tiles we host here, please use this attribution: Map tiles by Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under CC BY SA.” It seems to me that the attribution is missing……………

Maybe someone should contact the developers of Popcorn Maker.

Discussion

Comment from Aury88 on 18 October 2012 at 08:46

Per me hai ragione! è palesemente una attribuzione sbagliata a google

Comment from Vincent de Phily on 18 October 2012 at 11:50

Well spoted. I’m sure the incorrect attribution wasn’t intentional. Please go ahead and contact the popcorn devs.

Comment from aseerel4c26 on 18 October 2012 at 13:47

Much wind (“!!!”) about (nearly) nothing. You probably are right - but there are much much muuuuuch bigger license violations.

Comment from FraMauro on 18 October 2012 at 23:13

I just sent this mail to popcorn@mozilla.com


Dear Popcorn Developers, I was looking with interest at the preview of Popcorn Maker.

I realized that you use the map tiles created by Stamen Design.

When Popcorn Maker shows a map, the map shows on the lower left the Google logo, and on the lower right a link to the Google maps terms and conditions. This is true also when the map shown is a Stamen map

The Stamen Design website (http://maps.stamen.com) under the section “How to Use These Tiles Elsewhere” states that:

These maps are available free of charge. If you use the tiles we host here, please use this attribution: Map tiles by Stamen Design, under CC BY 3.0. Data by OpenStreetMap, under CC BY SA.

I think that Popcorn Maker should provide the right attibution for the map tiles and the map data

Best regards

Post scriptum: as a reference here is the link to the demo http://maker.mozillapopcorn.org/ and the demo version as stated on the website: Mozilla Popcorn preview You’re checking out a preview of an app in active development. This is using version 0.5.2 of the editor tools.

Comment from Harry Wood on 19 October 2012 at 09:53

Yeah it’s quite hidden away hey? The credits could be equally hidden away. We don’t necessarily require it to be on the map. But if they did want to put it on the map, there some examples here of using OSM maps with google maps javascript Could do with some better examples to be honest though. Needs a bit of work.

The OpenStreetMap license change affects the credit text to use, but that of course also depends on whether Stamen are basing off new ODbL licensed data (in which case they’ll need to update their “How to Use These Tiles Elsewhere” advice) So actually now is not a good time to be asking web developers to add credits in this way, because they may need to adjust them again some time soon. All a bit awkward at the moment. But anyway the post license change credit requirements are described here.

Comment from FraMauro on 19 October 2012 at 23:16

Updates. First answer after lass than two hours

Here it is:

Thanks for the feedback,

We’ve filed a ticket in our issue tracker to get this fixed (I quoted your email). Glad you spotted it.

-Bobby

and then: ———————- In case you were curious, here is the ticket: https://webmademovies.lighthouseapp.com/projects/65733-popcorn-maker/tickets/2613-stamen-design-attribution-in-google-maps-plugin#ticket-2613-5 ———————-

I tried to suggest to use more OSM tiles. Here is my mail:

Thank you very much for you prompt reply, Robert. I have seen the screenshot, indeed you acted very quickly. Just a note: OpenStreetMap (openstreetmap.org) provides other maps that you could use. Some of them are available on the site, some other from people like Stamen. If you are interested, this could be a good starting point: wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Using_OpenStreetMap

Best regards,

the answer is that they are planning to work more with OSM in the future.

So, if someone wants to get in touch with them to explain all the details of the license change or to explore all the possible collaborations, I can provide further details on the mail interchange. For me this is an acceptable result.

Comment from FraMauro on 19 October 2012 at 23:23

messed up something with the mark up (or Markdown :-) …)

here is the text in a more readable form

Updates. First answer after less than two hours. Here it is:

Thanks for the feedback, We’ve filed a ticket in our issue tracker to get this fixed (I quoted your email). Glad you spotted it. -Bobby

and then:

In case you were curious, here is the ticket: https://webmademovies.lighthouseapp.com/projects/65733-popcorn-maker/tickets/2613-stamen-design-attribution-in-google-maps-plugin#ticket-2613-5

I tried to suggest to use more OSM tiles. Here is my mail:

Thank you very much for you prompt reply, Robert. I have seen the screenshot, indeed you acted very quickly. Just a note: OpenStreetMap (openstreetmap.org) provides other maps that you could use. Some of them are available on the site, some other from people like Stamen. If you are interested, this could be a good starting point: wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Using_OpenStreetMap Best regards,

the answer is that they are planning to work more with OSM in the future.

So, if someone wants to get in touch with them to explain all the details of the license change or to explore all the possible collaborations, I can provide further details on the mail interchange. For me this is an acceptable result.

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