User:StC/Drafts/FFRP

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In summary

If you do not want to read this page in detail, what you must know is that in France the French Hiking Federation (FFRP) has legal rights on both the composition of some of the routes it publishes and the trademarks it uses to publish them. Given that FFRP has not agreed to anything regarding OpenStreetMap, is it recommended to:

  • mappers: if, despite the above, you decide to add routes that are operated by FFRP (GRs, GRPs), mention FFRP’s "GR", "GRP" and "PR" trademarks only once per route, in the *ref* tag of the parent relation that describes the route. Add the "operator" and "owner" tags with due consideration.
  • map makers and application developers: do not feature any route that has *operator=FFRP* and *owner* not defined or set to "FFRP".

The legal situation

What follows is not a professional legal analysis, only a summary of what OSM France has understood from its dealings with the French Hiking Federation (FFRP).

What is FFRP and what do they do?

FFRP federates french local hiking committees, that themselves federate hundreds of hiking associations. FFRP has a mandate by the french government to develop hiking activities in France. Their local associations and committees sometimes help maintain paths, help local authorities to create routes, publish guides, and award the GR/GRP/PR labels to routes that are submitted to them. Some routes they seem to create themselves.

What does FFRP own?

  • to protect its quality labels, FFRP has trademarked them: it owns the names GR, GRP, PR and the distinctive white/red and yellow/red signs.
  • to protect its business interests, FFRP has obtained at least once from a french court that hiking route are considered intellectual property and therefore have legal protection. FFRP is the legal author of some of the routes it publishes, and can restrict their reproduction. FFRP does not say which of the routes it operates it claims property of.

What does it mean for me?

  • regarding the trademarks, it means that you cannot use "GR", "GRP", and "PR" names nor the white/red and yellow/red signs on a hiking route, lest you are accused of counterfeiting and/or harming FFRP's interests. French community analysis is that only necessary references are allowed, and that the "GR", "GRP" and "PR" names cannot be used outside of the *ref* tag.
  • regarding the routes, it means that whatever means you use to reproduce the routes that FFRP owns, you are infringing on FFRP’s rights. Whether you copy them from a FFRP book or from a map, or reconstruct them from GPS tracks, survey of paint signs, or telepathy does not change anything: it’s the result that counts.


What does it imply for OSM contributors?

The OSM terms ask contributors to refrain from contributing data that does not respect intellectual property rights. The following conventions ensure the best legal safety that we can determine at this point:

  • if you want to be on the safe side, do not contribute french GR or GRP routes to OSM
  • if you do, use the owner tag to indicate if you are sure that FFRP does *not* own the route, when the actual author allows its reproduction
  • set the operator tag to FFRP, because even if they did not create the route, they operate it.
  • set the ref tag to "GR nn" or "GRP nn" or "PR nn", where nn is the number of the GR, GRP, or PR. This constitutes a necessary reference to a FFRP product.
  • set the note tag to a URL pointing to this page (so that contributors who find the relation can understand the situation)


What does it mean for map makers and application developers?

Despite the recommandations above, you will probably encounter FFRP routes in OSM and you may be liable under international copyright treaties if you reproduce them. If you wish to avoid that liability, you can:

  • parse the above tags
  • if the operator is FFRP and the owner tag is not defined or is set to FFRP, ignore the routes (parent relation and its subrelations, except when they are subrelations of another "legal" relation)