I guess one could tag as a hamlet - given the size of estates it could be argued that this is accurate, though of course some kind of dedicated rendering would be preferable. On the Wimpole Estate, tagged as landuse=conservation, the name kicks in at zoom 14 as you say osm.org/?lat=52.1411&lon=-0.0497&zoom=14&layers=B000FTF.

Great campaign, and I have voted of course - but without wishing to pour cold water, might not Google's imagery be subject to the copyright of its suppliers - Infoterra, Bluesky etc? In which case they'd need to be brought into the discussion too - but certainly worth getting a dialogue going with Google anyway.

Alain
Avez-vous essaye le tab 'export'? Ici on peut créer un fiche png/jpg, et utiliser eg Open Office pour créer un pdf, ou obtenir HTML pour 'embed' une carte OSM dans un web site. Autrement vous pouvez peut-etre demander dans les forums francophone (vois osm.wiki/WikiProject_France) pour de l'aide.

Another tack here is to approach local authorities directly and ask permission to use the DM itself for OSM purposes. I am doing this with my own authority - it seems that have a paper DM dating which is up to date to 1956 (!), and an internal 'source map' on the council intranet which is much more current. It seems reasonable that this should be made available to the public in some way, but the question is whether they would do so, and if so with what restrictions. I will post an update with the outcome, but in the meantime does anyone else have experience of this process?

Interesting questions - my view is that we have to be pragmatic about this. OSM is never (as you suggest) going to provide a definitive guide to footpaths, and waving an OSM map at the farmer with the shotgun isn't going to cut a lot of ice when you explain to them how it was produced. However that doesn't mean that it's not worth doing, and, as other comments have pointed out, the alternatives are not necessarily accurate either.

What OSM can do is to provide a record of what is on the ground, as observed by contributors. I don't see a problem if these contributors used OS or another map to get them to the point that they are recording - it seems rather unlikely that a case for breach of copyright would be made in these circumstances. However if you can work from the 'definitive' map, as suggested by Philip, so much the better. Even better if this is backed up with local knowledge, either your own or the local Ramblers Association for example.

What's also important is that users of OSM understand it for what it is - a crowd-sourced record of the world in 2D - and use their senses (common and otherwise) on the ground if they see a conflict with what's on the map, and then hopefully edit the map as a result. Either way, the end result should be better defined, signed, documented and mapped paths.