While maps are protected with copyrights, facts are not. It is possible to create derivatives of maps without actually infringing on the copyright.
Maps from federal sources are most likely a safe public domain source to look at. For example C.I.A. or Nasa maps.
As for games, well that's a tricky and mostly uncharted territory. There is a good argument that can be made for "fair use" of user created content from games like mods, fan art, or other creative derivatives like "red VS blue" (whom ultimately obtained permission). That being said an equally compelling argument can be made against allowing user created maps/content that could be viewed as hurting the profits from game developers/distributors if they sell similar content like game guides, or game cheats.
Citation has nothing to do with copyrights, its been a tradition and etiquette to cite sources to give credit in many fields like photography, science, news, etc,etc,etc for various good reasons..... but citation does not do much to show you were more or less guilty of infringing on copyrights. If I were to bootleg some pop song and give the singer/producer/distributor some extensive credit while giving away the music for free, it doesn't mean I didn't infringe on the intellectual rights of those people. On the same note, if I played the music (a cover) at a religious function and gave no citation or credit to the audience of the creators and/or original performers, it wouldn't diminish a fair use defense in any way since the copyright laws specifically state this kind of use is permissible.
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Topic: Map copyright (Read 785 times)
