But if what you were saying was right then George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” wouldn’t have been found to infringe “He’s So Fine.” What matters is not that there is an underlying public domain work, but rather that a subsequent recording does not copy the artistic elements that the previous recording added to the work.
I am pretty sure that Waze doesn’t want to be the test case to see where more ends and less begins in any of the countries that more-or-less don’t hold to it.
Guys… seriously.
Does the armchair courtroom antics even matter?
Waze requested of Oyyo to remove that functionality, for what they described as copyright concerns.
Copyright concerns, that, I might point out, have been well-articulated in the wiki for quite some time.
Oyyo obliged.
End of story.
Yes, it’s a pain to not have that direct link to GMM. And yes, it’s unfortunate to not have that link to Livemap or the Beta editor. And perhaps Oyyo can re-implement those, unless Waze had requested they be excluded as well.
Be thankful Waze didn’t just break the thing hopelessly… that would just as easily have been in their power.
I’ve not heard that Waze got any basemap data from Google. In the US my understanding is that the basemap data is US Census TIGER data.
It is unfortunate that the link to Google MapMaker has been removed along with everything else. I used that link frequently – not to get any information from Google Maps, but to make corrections to their maps.
Is there a way that some of these links be allowed based on editor level? I believe that most of us that are rank 3+, having put in hundreds of volunteer hours, understand how to get legitimate data and would not compromise the Waze map by using copyrighted data. (Or whatever rank is deemed appropriate.)
I expect you’re going to get a big fat “no” on that, but I agree that it would be nice if it could be enabled for something along those lines, for people who know to not just run amok copying stuff. Maybe even not do it according to rank, but to things like AM, CM, SM, RC, etc, to be extra sure that it’s going to people with an elevated level of trust already.
I join all of you in protest against this new version…
If really Copyright is the reason, then…
One solution would be to add a button to copy into memory only the coordinates that can then be used with the search function on the websites of other maps.
You can do this at least, right? :ugeek:
You don’t get to L4 without knowing that you shouldn’t copy information from other maps. As a secondary option, maybe toolbox could have a permalink style button that spits out the GPS coordinates of your locations, so that you can paste it in whatever search box you like.
L4 also means that you can edit maps using your knowledge, and many, many other information.
Often found incorrect information in other maps.
is our reliability and professionalism in breeding all the information that makes us do a good job.
The secondary option would be very useful.
Maybe Oyyo could give us (in addition to at least the LiveMap button 
) buttons which copy lon/lat and lat/lon to the clipboard, for those of us who actually do keep, and rely on, collections of GIS maps, for easier location. Nothing copyrightable about coordinates. Zoom out a level, click once on the spot in question to center, and boom, coordinates.
Government GIS maps (where they exist) are, while not 100% accurate or foolproof in most cases, FAR more accurate than any protected source I’ve seen, on the whole.
(Yes, I know there’s a button for this in Fancy Permalink, but I don’t load that all the time, and it only provides one version.)
Edit: I’d originally posted this in the wrong forum about an hour and a half ago… didn’t mean to copy the suggestion just above. 
Ok, thanks for the info. I didn’t know where they had gotten it from.
Working great for me here.
Calm down guys, it’s not the end of the world
The GPS coordinates are embedded in the permalink.
If you think that toolbox is dead, you obviously haven’t used the awesome roundabout tools it has. It’s also way better than colour highlights at picking out enabled U-turns.
Um… Really? You don’t use Toolbox for any other function than the now-removed links to other maps? Nothing? At all?
If so, you’ve been seriously under-using it.
I think his point is, like me, 98% of the clicks in Toolbox was to open stuff in Google Maps to validate something or another. If someone is going to wholesale copy stuff, they’ll do it with or without a link, it just makes day to day editing more painful.
No kidding. Those are the features that I rarely use. I’ve never used the Bing link, and have only used the Google link a couple of times.
I don’t disagree with you there (see my earlier tirade in this thread if you don’t believe me :)). I used the link to GM, Bing, etc., quite a bit myself.
But it was hardly the only feature that I used. Yea, it’s harder to get to the other maps now (and I agree - it doesn’t stop it, it just makes it a LOT more inconvenient). But I’ve always had it set to show me things about the roads I’m editing that I wouldn’t see otherwise (even with Validator), and those settings are still there.
I agree completely with what HavanaDay said in an earlier posting - GMM is a PITA to work with on a good day (no, he didn’t say that part - that’s all me). Without the link button to take me where I’m at in Waze, when I get a “bad address” UR now, I’m just going to tell them that I’m sorry for their inconvenience and that the address location data is in Google Maps, and suggest to them that they use GMM themselves to try and suggest the change to Google, and then close the UR.
But I still find Toolbox useful, if not quite as handy in some regards.
I lot of talk about Google but the ones i used the most where Mapquest and OpenStreetMaps which were better updated (at least in Sweden), and i guess they could sue Waze. Damn! But then again, aren’t them “open source”?
One thing is for sure, without this tool I have a feeling that my mapping days are going to end soon.
The most irritating part is working in rural areas (which is most of what I do). Sometimes different map sources conflict and it was easy to confirm the correct road name by opening several at a time quickly. It will seriously slow down editing for me.
It seems to me that someone at Waze jumped to conclusions. Having a link to someone else’s map, especially via third party tools, in no way creates additional liability on Waze’s part, nor does removing such links reduce liability. If Waze is found to have infringing data, they’re screwed. If not, they aren’t.
Waze can try to put up a legal defense, I suppose, that they did everything possible to discourage users from copying, and this adds to it. But it will be a sideshow to the only real question: is their data infringing or not infringing?
The same thing could have bee accomplished by asking that the button pop up a message before opening the other map window: This link is provided for you convenience in viewing another provider’s map information. You acknowledge that you are not permitted to use copyrighted information from another source in editing the Waze map. ACKNOWLEDGE / CANCEL o <- check to not show this message for 30 days.
Most of us make all sorts of non-infringing use of other maps. We submit rpeorts to Google. We view signs on Streetview. Yes, you can get Streetview images on WME, but they’r enot as good – the Window is smaller, and you can’t go back to a previous version of the image if the current version is blurred. There are also some sources whose data is freely available that could be linked but now never will, apparently. (Shhh, in the US, we can even view signs in Bing or Nokia’s maps for US edits without infringing. YMMV in other countries.)
I hear the pain of users like (I think) SuperDave, who just won’t be bothered to submit changes to GMM, or won’t be bothered to verify signage beyond what WME provides. I don’t think everyone will personally quit those activities, but they may have to have a more motivated moment to do so, which means the quality of editing will sometimes suffer.
It is what it is, and each editor may do as he or she pleases with this result. No need to get upset about it. Frustrated? Yes. Upset? No.
TL;DR: There isn’t really a legal reason to have done this. If you are frustrated by it, and it gets in the way of your editing, feel free to stop using other maps in conjunction with your Waze editing. But don’t let it get to you, this is not your real life.