Company violated OSM rules in original iPhoto release

Apple rectified missing credit to the OpenStreetMap Foundation with its most recent update of iPhoto for iOS, reports say. When the app was originally released in March, Apple left out attribution, despite it being a necessary condition of using OSM mapping data. The Foundation highlighted the problem in same blog post it used to point out Apple's adoption of OSM data.

Following the May 1st update of iPhoto, though, users can now find attribution in the "Acknowledgements" section of the iPhoto menu under the Settings app. Talking Points Memo notes that Apple made the change after OSM contacted the company directly, as well as through a third-party developer. OSM board member Richard Fairhurst suggests that it was actually the developer, also one of OSM's volunteer mappers, that finally led Apple to give credit.

"Obviously we'd rather that Apple had attributed right from the start, but nonetheless this is a big step forward," says Fairhurst. "If the biggest computer company in the world, one with a perfectionist instinct, feels that OpenStreetMap data meets its needs and is happy to publicly attribute us, then that's a great vote of confidence in our community's work."

Apple has traditionally relied on Google Maps data, which is built into iOS' native Maps app. The company has increasingly distanced itself from Google though, largely over the latter's competing Android tablet and smartphone platform. Apple has in fact bought several mapping-related companies, and hired a number of developers for the explicit purpose of working on mapping technology. In April Apple said it was working on a "crowd-sourced traffic" service for iOS, which could form part of a new navigation platform.

by MacNN Staff