Automated edits are discouraged in OSM, and if they are going to be done one has to send a notice to the appropriate mailing list and create the edits using additional username (so it will be easier to revert the changes).
I wouldn't say discouraged, just they have to be registered. See the list of all the imports, planned or finished:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Catalogue. In a lot of places pretty much all of the data came from automated imports. People checking the map is good, but manual data entry is a pain and there aren't many doing that.
That's why it's only possible to use whitelisted data sources: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Aerial_imagery . Given the scope of this task, "find a license-compatible imagery" is a non-issue.
See: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Automated_edits