[OSM-dev] Planet Updates

[Sergey Galuzo]

That's good. Thank you.

-----Original Message-----
From: Frederik Ramm [mailto:frederik at remote.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 3:38 PM
To: Sergey Galuzo
Cc: Shane Reynolds; dev at openstreetmap.org
Subject: Re: [OSM-dev] Planet Updates

Hi,

On 04/18/2012 07:52 PM, Sergey Galuzo wrote:
> Sorry. I don't quite get it. If the database content is identical how would anybody know how the database got there?

Let me explain it by example.

Case A: You meet a stranger in the street. You point a gun to his head and request he give you five dollars. He complies. Nobody sees it. A second later he is run over by a bus.

Case B: You meet a stranger in the street. You tell him that you urgently need to catch a bus and whether he could spare five dollars. He gives five dollars to you. Nobody sees it. A second later he is run over by a bus.

In both cases, the end result is the same; the other guy is dead and you have five dollars. Nobody apart from yourself will ever know how the five dollars got there.

But case A is illegal and case B is legal. Just because nobody knows that you did something illegal, doesn't make it legal.

Clear so far?

If you have a current database on disk it is CC-BY-SA licensed and nothing will ever change that. It is not dual-liecensed, not CC-BY-SA-until-OSMF-says-otherwise - just CC-BY-SA and that's it. Any work derived from this database, and applying a diff is clearly making a derived work, will always have to be CC-BY-SA, that's what the license requires. Even if whoever gave you the file changes their mind and says "from now on I'll hand the file out as PD", that will not change the fact that what you have *on disk* is CC-BY-SA forever. (This same reasoning also works to protect you - if whoever gave you the file suddenly says "from now on I will only release my file with additional conditions attached" then you still have the CC-BY-SA version on your disk that nobody can take away from you.)

In a nutshell, you can probably continue to use your database under ODbL and nobody will notice. It won't be legal though and you'd better keep quiet about it. And I don't recommend it.

Bye
Frederik

--
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"