[OSM-legal-talk] Please enable commercial use

[Nathan Vander Wilt]

I've already said quite alot over on talk@, so I'll try to keep this  
to the point.

I am writing a geotagging application that I hope to sell. When I  
first found OSM, I was very excited for what I could use it for but as  
I've followed the discussions I've become a lot more concerned. While  
there are many users who want their work to be fully in the public  
domain, it seems that Ordinance Surveyesque FUD concerning derivative  
works might trump even those users' contributions. I cannot open my  
tiny company and our potential customers to the viral effects of a  
broad application of the "Share Alike" intentions under a broad notion  
of "derivative works". The proposed ODL/ODC licenses would clear up  
some of the grey areas, but not all.

I am worried that in our zeal to avoid "a company with clever lawyers  
find[ing] a way to use our data without respecting the intent of the  
community" we will continue to make it too risky for small companies  
who do want to respect the intent but are worried that any one  
contributor may not agree with their interpretation. The current  
license, and I believe the proposed pair of licenses, leave too much  
risk for well-intentioned small companies. It seems as though it is  
not our intent to preclude commercial use of the data, but with so  
many unknowns, only open source projects (who can let the viral nature  
propagate through the entire stack), or large companies (who can pay  
to find and defend loopholes) can comfortably use the data.



I really would like to see a license as simple as the following:

For data users -
0. Open Street Map collects and creates public domain map data.
1. Attribution of Open Street Map is expected. We make it easy.
2. Contributing back or freely sharing modifications is very strongly
encouraged.

For map editors -
1. Only add essentially uncopyrighted map data.
2. You are welcome join the list of contributors.


This could be implemented under the PDDL with Community Norms, as it  
seems the original authors of the proposed licenses are encouraging us  
to do anyway (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Open_Data_License#Criticism 
). It would provide clear answers for all the grey areas, while being  
just about as effective as a more involved set of licenses. (I think  
that you could actually see more benefit, but that's an age-old, yet  
unsettled, argument.) What do we stand to lose with a clear, simple,  
community-encouraging PDDL+Norms license, that we wouldn't continue to  
risk losing against a calculated infringement against more complicated  
legalese?

thanks,
-natevw

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