[Legal-general] Which approach would be the best to import data into PD database?

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

> I'm not sure what makes you think that any data you take from the
> OpenStreetMap database could possibly not be covered by the CC-BY-SA
> license. Everything that's in there is covered, no exceptions. The
> planet file, for instance, is covered by the license - and it doesn't
> say "CC-BY-SA some-of-it, other-bits PD". Neither does the API.
> 
> Now if a contributor (including bulk uploaders) is/are willing to
> *also* put a copy of their data into the public domain, then you
> should enquire from them to receive a copy of their data duly
> licensed. Public Domain is not "viral"; for example just because vast
> amounts of OSM data came from TIGER doesn't mean that any of that data
> in OSM is still public domain.

This is not my opinion. If I upload my data to OSM and say it is PD 
(thus effectively dual licensed) then anyone can get it from there and 
it is still PD. It ceases to be PD if it is touched by someone with 
different licensing, but just by sitting next to CC-BY-SA data in OSM it 
doesn't become CC-BY-SA infected!

> Yet, (along with a million things on wikipedia supposedly in the
> public domain) be aware that whilst some people may be willing to
> state that their contributions are public domain, it doesn't
> necessarily make it so.

And then again, some people say "if you use my data then your derived 
work is CC-BY-SA", yet that doesn't necessarily make it so (because this 
  only applies if the original data was protected by copyright, which 
pure facts usually aren't). Any CC-BY-SA you slap on non-copyrighted 
data (for example, TIGER data) is null and void, unless of course you 
somehow make a non-trivial derived work from it and claim copyright.

Bye
Frederik

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