DWG Activity Report for Jul-Dec 2013
In the second half of 2013, DWG handled approximately 100 cases (see attached list). Some cases are quickly identified as non-issues, but many require detailed investigation and communication, the blocking of users and/or the reverting of edits.
The second half of 2013 was largely "business as usual" for DWG, meaning a steady flow of small-time copyright violations, unsuitable imports, newbie mistakes, and territorial disputes. The amount of automated or semi-automated edits is slightly on the rise; a common pattern is someone downloading a world-wide selection of objects tagged "X" through Overpass, "fixing" it in JOSM, and re-uploading. Current policy mandates that, unless the user in question actually inspects every single changed object, they must discuss their edit with the community beforehand. In the medium term, we will have to improve automatic detection of such unwanted mass edits, and perhaps find ways to channel the enthusisasm of these users into areas where they can actually be useful.
Apart from the "usual" things, we also did a lot of work redacting very old imports in mostly South America, where boundary data had been imported years ago from sources that were incompatible with our license - a fact that often required a lot of communication to establish in the first place.
Another notable case that required considerable discussion and involved the OSMF management team was that of a mapper who removed data that he deemed to be illegal in his country, and after the local community decided to keep the data, threatened to report individual mappers to the police for their mapping. It was resolved that irrespective of the legal situation, such threats are unacceptable and people issuing such are not welcome in OSM.
Following is a list of cases in which DWG was involved during the second half of 2013. This list is not necessarily complete, but almost. (In the case of territorial disputes the country listed is either the country Nominatim reports the activity was in or the country the user believes the area belongs to and does not represent a DWG decision on the dispute.)
| Month | Country | Topic |
| Jul 2013 | France | undiscussed import |
| Jul 2013 | Italy | undiscussed import |
| Jul 2013 | Germany | conflict; autocratic user |
| Jul 2013 | UK | mass translations to Lithuanian |
| Jul 2013 | worldwide | bad edits / vandalism |
| Jul 2013 | worldwide | abuse of OSM messaging system |
| Jul 2013 | Europe | erroneous mass-retagging of highway=road |
| Jul 2013 | Japan | territorial dispute |
| Jul 2013 | USA | bad import |
| Jul 2013 | Uganda | user asking for policy clarification |
| Jul 2013 | Hungary | user asking for policy clarification |
| Jul 2013 | Denmark | foreign user ignoring local rules and does not communicate |
| Jul 2013 | Norway | beginner making mistakes and not communicating |
| Jul 2013 | Moldavia | naming conflicts / automated edit |
| Jul 2013 | Germany | commercial mapper making bad edits to railway stations |
| Jul 2013 | France | undiscussed import (INSEE) |
| Jul 2013 | worldwide | user using questionable road name sources |
| Jul 2013 | Germany | new user making mistakes |
| Jul 2013 | France | bad import |
| Aug 2013 | Japan | territorial dispute |
| Aug 2013 | Japan | territorial dispute |
| Aug 2013 | Japan | territorial dispute |
| Aug 2013 | Belgium | Un-discussed import |
| Aug 2013 | Czech | Undiscussed import |
| Aug 2013 | USA | DMCA complaint |
| Aug 2013 | USA | new user making mistakes |
| Aug 2013 | Ukraine | violation of data protection rules |
| Aug 2013 | worldwide | erroneous mass-adding of is_capital=country |
| Aug 2013 | France | mass-spellfixing of names |
| Aug 2013 | Iran | bad import |
| Aug 2013 | South Africa | mass-simplification of lines with side effects |
| Aug 2013 | Brazil | bad import |
| Aug 2013 | Nigeria | bad import |
| Aug 2013 | worldwide | un-discussed mass edits |
| Aug 2013 | Germany | import with unsuitable license |
| Aug 2013 | Brazil | bad import |
| Aug 2013 | Brazil | bad import |
| Aug 2013 | Canada | spam |
| Aug 2013 | worldwide | mass addition of "notes" |
| Aug 2013 | India | un-discussed import |
| Sep 2013 | USA | Undiscussed imports |
| Sep 2013 | Japan | territorial dispute |
| Sep 2013 | worldwide | imports with unsuitable license |
| Sep 2013 | worldwide | buggy software placing nodes at 0 0 |
| Sep 2013 | Luxembourg | un-discussed mass edits |
| Sep 2013 | Brazil | problematic edits |
| Sep 2013 | Ukraine | spam |
| Sep 2013 | USA | notes feature misuse |
| Sep 2013 | UK | new user making mistakes |
| Sep 2013 | Ukraine | imports with unsuitable license |
| Sep 2013 | Latvia | fictional data |
| Sep 2013 | Romania | conflict; autocratic user |
| Sep 2013 | Russia | fictional data |
| Sep 2013 | Ecuador | import with unsuitable license |
| Sep 2013 | Bolivia | import with unsuitable license |
| Sep 2013 | Philippines | use of copyrighted source |
| Sep 2013 | Germany | conflict; autocratic user |
| Sep 2013 | France | mechanical edit |
| Sep 2013 | Jordan | un-discussed import |
| Oct 2013 | Denmark | un-discussed import |
| Oct 2013 | Poland | bad import |
| Oct 2013 | UK | fictional data |
| Oct 2013 | Brazil | use of copyrighted source |
| Oct 2013 | Italy | imports with unsuitable license |
| Oct 2013 | Netherlands | un-discussed import |
| Oct 2013 | Netherlands | consultation re. address import |
| Oct 2013 | USA | appeal from blocked user |
| Oct 2013 | Israel | repeated deletion of military areas |
| Oct 2013 | Norway | un-discussed import |
| Oct 2013 | Russia | use of copyrighted source |
| Oct 2013 | Indonesia | un-discussed/buggy import |
| Oct 2013 | wordwide | un-discussed/buggy import |
| Oct 2013 | UK | use of copyrighted source |
| Oct 2013 | USA | un-discussed import |
| Oct 2013 | Balkans | disputed border |
| Oct 2013 | worldwide | mass retagging of boundary ways |
| Oct 2013 | worldwide | unwarranted translations |
| Oct 2013 | Bolivia | import with unsuitable license |
| Oct 2013 | worldwide | undiscussed mass edits |
| Oct 2013 | UK | new user making mistakes |
| Oct 2013 | Philippines | bad mechanical edit |
| Nov 2013 | UK | new user editing data to fit "a game he plays" |
| Nov 2013 | South America | import with unsuitable license |
| Nov 2013 | Italy | use of copyrighted source |
| Nov 2013 | Jamaica | new user deleting "unneeded" objects |
| Nov 2013 | Madagascar | use of copyrighted source |
| Nov 2013 | USA | fictional edits |
| Nov 2013 | UK | new user deleting "unneeded" objects |
| Nov 2013 | UK | fictional edits / continued vandalism |
| Nov 2013 | Canada | careless mass import |
| Nov 2013 | South Africa | un-discussed/buggy import |
| Nov 2013 | Russia | vandalism |
| Dec 2013 | USA | dispute |
| Dec 2013 | Cyprus | naming dispute |
| Dec 2013 | France | GPX trace taken from copyrighted source |
| Dec 2013 | USA | bad mass edit |
| Dec 2013 | USA | bad mass edit |
| Dec 2013 | worldwide | Bitcoin spam |
| Dec 2013 | Spain | un-discussed/broken import |
| Dec 2013 | USA | use of copyrighted source |
| Dec 2013 | Western Sahara | dispute |
| Dec 2013 | UK | use of copyrighted source |
| Dec 2013 | USA | complaint about incorrect data |
| Dec 2013 | Germany | use of copyrighted source for notes |
| Dec 2013 | wordwide | un-discussed mass edits |
| Dec 2013 | Romania | user making mistakes and unwilling to learn |