Google Monopoly and OpenStreetMap…

I got a jolt this morning, when on the bus, and listening to my favorite PR podcast I heard about how the Monopoly City Streets game I wrote about last week is built on both Google Maps and OpenStreetMap. I was sure the piece in error - I saw no mention of OSM in the coverage of the game. (The piece was actually an “ad” for a service called Custom Scoop - that company’s ads are all “news” so they are considered content in my book - wink, wink.)

But, I am incorrect! Per the OSM-Legal-Talk list and the OpenStreetMap list - it seems the game uses OSM tiles and Google Maps tiles. There are questions about if the provider of the game, Tribal DDB which is part of Hasbro Inc., is abiding by OSMs Creative Commons license.

And, after I looked I did find two media stories that noted OSM was in the mix. PCPro and PC World.

Maybe by the time our Location Intelligence Conference rolls around, OSM’s Steve Coast can tell us an interesting story about this.