Well summarized Richard!<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 9:39 AM, Richard Weait <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:richard@weait.com">richard@weait.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Dear All,<br>
Here is an announcement from Steve Coast regarding another step in the<br>
long, slow process of improving the OpenStreetMap data license.<br>
<br>
I've paraphrased [] one portion of his email where he originally had<br>
broken links.<br>
<br>
The license change is a good thing. I'm looking forward to it being<br>
finished though, as it seems to have been going on for ever. If you<br>
have not been previously aware of the license change, my summary is<br>
this.<br>
<br>
1) ccbysa is a great license for creative works and a great concept for data<br>
2) but Creative Commons told us that ccbysa is not intended for data<br>
after we started using it<br>
3) Open Knowledge Foundation created the ODbL to be both for data, and<br>
identical to ccbysa in concept<br>
4) volunteers from OSM have been going through the steps to transition<br>
to a new license for some time now<br>
<br>
Some folks don't like some aspects of the proposed license. They are<br>
participating in the license process and will be free to not adopt the<br>
new license. Some folks are tired of what seems like periodic,<br>
tedious discussion of arcane legal gobbledygook. They are free to<br>
learn as much or little about the issues and participate in the degree<br>
they choose.<br>
<br>
If you've not heard of the license change before, I recommend this<br>
highly simplified process. It should take less than five minutes:<br>
<br>
1) have a look at the ccbysa summary<br>
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" target="_blank">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/</a><br>
2) have a look at the ODbL summary<br>
<a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/summary/" target="_blank">http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/summary/</a><br>
3) decide that the licenses are close enough for you,<br>
4) when the license change process asks you to accept the ODbL in a<br>
few weeks or months, agree to do so.<br>
5) and keep mapping.<br>
<br>
And if you can't just accept that the licenses are close enough for<br>
you, based on the summaries, follow the links below for more details<br>
and discussion. But that will extend beyond the five minute process<br>
above. ;-)<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
Richard<br>
<br>
<br>
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: SteveC <<a href="mailto:steve@asklater.com">steve@asklater.com</a>><br>
Date: Wed, May 12, 2010 at 10:47 AM<br>
Subject: [OSM-talk] New users have to sign up to the ODbL<br>
To: <a href="mailto:post@opengeodata.posterous.com">post@opengeodata.posterous.com</a>, openstreetmap Mailing List<br>
<<a href="mailto:talk@openstreetmap.org">talk@openstreetmap.org</a>>, <a href="mailto:osmf-talk@openstreetmap.org">osmf-talk@openstreetmap.org</a><br>
<br>
<br>
After several thousand man years of effort by the License Working<br>
Group and a bit of help by TomH, the new contributor terms and license<br>
are up and to be agreed to by new users.<br>
<br>
[Signing up for OSM now presents you with a contributor agreement,<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/Contributor_Terms" target="_blank">http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/Contributor_Terms</a>]<br>
<br>
where essentially you are signing up to the existing CCBYSA plus the<br>
ODbL (Open Database License).<br>
<br>
This is one step along the long path to moving to the ODbL. For all<br>
your fun ODbL needs, check out the wiki page:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/ODbL" target="_blank">http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/ODbL</a><br>
<br>
Why is this step being taken? Basically, it bounds the problem of<br>
moving to a license which actually protects and clarifies the uses of<br>
OSMs data. Otherwise, the number of people who have to move grows<br>
every day. From now on, it is a bounded problem of only the users<br>
before today. Several further steps will need to be taken to actually<br>
move to the ODbL.<br>
<br>
I'd like to thank all those involved in the ODbL and the LWG for all<br>
their hard work over the last two or so years in making this small<br>
step happen.<br>
<br>
And, remember, if you have any concerns or objections then they've<br>
likely already to have been discussed at the above wiki page(s), or<br>
you're welcome to be involved with the change process by joining the<br>
legal mailing list and/or joining the LWG calls.<br>
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<br>
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</blockquote></div><br>