Licence/Licence and Legal FAQ

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Revision as of 18:58, 30 September 2013 by MikeCollinson (talk | contribs) (Are there any special conditions or restrictions for commercial or academic use?: typo)

In September 2012, our license was changed from CC-BY-SA to ODbL. Data extracted from OSM after September 2012 is licensed ODbL.

What is the license, how can I use it?

This FAQ is for anyone who wants to use OpenStreetMap geodata for making maps, routing, location or any other purpose. You do not need to register with the OpenStreetMap project. OpenStreetMap geodata is freely available to anyone.

The OpenStreetMap Geodata License




Secondly, you "Share Alike". If you do not make any changes to OpenStreetMap data, then you are unlikely to have a "Share Alike" obligation. But, if you publicly distribute something that you have made from our data, such as a map or another database, AND you have added to or enhanced our data, then we want you to make those additions publicly available. We obviously prefer it if you added the data straight back to our database, but you do not have to, as long as the public can easily get a copy of what you have done. If you do not publicly distribute anything, then you do not have to share anything.

Our license is the Open Database License (ODbL). Here is the human readable summary and here is the full text.

Legal Bit! Please note that none of this is legal advice. We are but a small not-for-profit, with a goal of publishing big, useful data.

I am using your older data

Data contributed prior to September 2012 continues to be available from our archives under "CC-BY-SA", the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike version 2.0.


Legal Bit! Under "CC-BY-SA", the individual contributors, not the Foundation, are the licensors of the data.

Is it really free?



What about map tiles?

If your application is going to directly serve map tiles from, we ask you to observe our tile usage policy. You can also use your own tile server or a commercial provider ... see links on tile usage policy page. Note that the map tiles we serve continue to be published under the CC-BY-SA license.


No. Anyone, personal, academic, government, commercial ..., has rights to use our data under equal terms. Our license says, "... These rights explicitly include commercial use, and do not exclude any field of endeavour."

If I have data derived from OSM data, do I HAVE to distribute it?

No, The licence does not force you to distribute or make any data available.


Yes. You can charge any amount of money you want for any service or data you provide. However, since the data (or service) that is derived from OSM data must be licensed as above, other people may then redistribute this without payment.

Can I get permission from OpenStreetMap Foundation to distribute OSM data under an alternative licence?


The Foundation is contractually bound to all OpenStreetMap individual contributors to license the data only under a specific license. Currently, this is ODbL 1.0. The Foundation has the right to change that license to meet future conditions but only if is "free and open" and only under a mechanism that involves getting the consent of then active contributors.

Copyright to individual contributions remains with the contributor and their consent can be asked directly. If you happen to use data provided solely by one or a few OSM contributors, you can ask them if they are willing to provide their data to you under a different license.

What do you mean by "Attribution"?

We want you to attribute OpenStreetMap, i.e. you show users and viewers of whatever you do with our data clearly where you got the data from. A lot of contributors have spent and spend a lot of time and effort adding data from virtually every country in the world. We would also like people to know about our project and perhaps use or contribute data themselves.

How should I attribute you?

Our requested attribution is "© OpenStreetMap contributors".

We ask that you hyperlink the attribution to where possible. Because OpenStreetMap is its contributors, you may omit the word "contributors" if space is limited.


(If you are using map tiles supplied by us, you must also make it clear that the tiles are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence. This may also be fulfilled by linking to

Where to put it?

This credit needs to appear in a place that is reasonable to the medium or means you are utilising. In other words, you should expect to credit OpenStreetMap in the same way and with the same prominence as would be expected by any other map supplier. Therefore:

  • As an electronic database or collection of databases, file, CD, Place the text in the file itself or in an extra file.
  • A video or computer game - on the credits page or in the game view.

What do you mean by Share-Alike?

If you publicly use any adapted version of our database, or a partial extraction from it, or works (such as maps) produced from an adapted database, you must also offer that adapted database under the ODbL.

In other words, if you improve our data and then distribute it, you need to share your improvements with the general public at no charge. A painless way to do that is to contribute your improvements directly back to OpenStreetMap.

Share-Alike only applies if you distribute what you have done to outside people or organisations. You can do what you like at home, or in your school, organisation or company ... the following section does not apply to you.

What exactly do I need to share?

ODbL draws a distinction between data, (geodata), and works produced from the data, (maps). You are probably distributing data if you are involved in searching, routing, geocoding. You are probably distributing maps if you print paper maps, have a website with map tiles, or are displaying a map as part of a larger work such as a television show, film, advertisment or book. Sometimes, you may be doing both, for example games production, such as a flight simulator, may involve producing a 3D world and using geodata directly to generate a list of destinations.

In brief summary:

  • If you correct or extend our data, you need to share your new data.
  • If you make a map from our data, you may publish the map itself under any license you like, including commercial. You DO however, have to share the underlying data, including anything that you have added, except that ...
  • You may also add separate and distinct layers to your map made from other sources of data. This data does not have to be shared, provided there is no interaction with the OpenStreetMap derived layer. For example, you cannot have a layer of restaurant icons that only appear if the same restaurant is not in OpenStreetMap!

In more detail:

If you are distributing geodata derived wholly or in part from OpenStreetMap, you need to do that under the ODbL.

  • If you enhance OpenStreetMap data with other data, for example adding missing roads or adding more restaurants, then Share-Alike applies to the whole thing. This is generally known as a "Derived Database".
  • If you publish a set of OSM data as a file or database, with other separate files or databases, this is generally known as a "Collective Database". The ODbL clearly states that Share-Alike does not apply to the other parts of a Collective Database.

If you make a map from OpenStreetMap geodata and publish it, you may publish the map under any license you like. In ODbL parlance, this is known as a "Produced Work".

  • If the map is in a larger work, like a book or a TV program or a website or an advertisment, that larger work can be under any license you like. Share-Alike does not apply to the larger work. We, for example, use CC-BY-SA, but that is our voluntary choice.
  • However, if you have added to or enhanced our data in order to make the map, you must make those additions publicly available without charge. Also, anyone can extract the original data from the map, (such as latitude and longitudes, names of streets and places), without paying you or asking your permission.
  • You can however, put separate and distinct data layers on top of your map, such as icons showing specialists points of interest, routes, track logs, shaded areas, contours and the like, then Share-Alike does not apply to these elements as long as they do not interact with the map underneath.

Can I use OSM data and OpenStreetMap-derived maps to verify my own data without triggering share-alike?

Yes, provided that you are only comparing and do not copy any OpenStreetMap data. If you make any changes to your data after making the comparison, you should be able to reasonably demonstrate that any such change was made either from your own physical observation or comes from a non-OpenStreetMap source accessed directly by you. I.e you can compare but not take!

  • Example 1: You notice that a street is called one name on your map and another in OpenStreetMap. You should visit the street and check the name, then you are free to put that name in your data as it is your own observation.
  • Example 2: You notice that a boundary is different in your data and OpenStreetMap. You should check back to original authoritative sources and make any correction required.

What should my lawyer look at?

If you are a potential end user and need to do a legal review before using OpenStreetMap data, here is what we suggest your lawyer or legal department look at:

  • The OpenStreetMap Contributor Terms. This acts as the Contents license referred to by ODbL. Note that we have endeavoured to design our licensing system to use just the ODbL license as a "one stop shop" regarding the rights and obligations of end users. It is not our intent for any Contents license to restrict rights further nor to add extra obligations.
  • Community_Guidelines These analyse specific legal terms and generic language in the ODbL specifically as it regards our geodata and how it used. For example, what does the EU Database Directive term "Substantial" extraction mean in practical terms. They carry no formal legal weight but do present what the OpenStreetMap community, and therefore the OSM Foundation as publisher, feels to be reasonable and acceptable.

More information about ODBL

The Open Database License, "ODbL" 1.0, is an Attribution and Share-Alike license for Data/Databases. It has been developed by Open Data Commons with input from OpenStreetMap.

It offers clearer protection for OpenStreetMap and better clarity to end users. OpenStreetMap data is offered freely for any use under Attribution and Share Alike terms. One important difference to highlight is that we will no longer require maps made from our data to be released under Share Alike conditions. Instead, any license can be used, including commercial, as long as any enhancements you made to our data is is shared back as data, for example a file on a website, or, better for us, directly contributed to OpenStreetMap. This should make it easier to make maps with layers of data from closed proprietary sources, something impossible now.

Detailed information about the new license and why it was changed:

More information about CC-BY-SA

You are infringing my copyright

OpenStreetMap contributors are asked never to add data from any copyrighted sources (e.g. Google Maps or printed maps) without explicit permission from the copyright holders.

If you believe that your copyrighted material has been inappropriately added to the OpenStreetMap database or this site, please refer to our takedown procedure or file directly at our on-line filing page.