[Legal-general] Introduction

[Simon Ward]

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 12:27:41PM -0600, Eric Wolf wrote:
> Third, the primary hurdle between the USGS and OSM interchanging data on a
> large scale is due to licensing. The USGS is required by federal law to
> release all data free of any restrictions. Technically, it's not PD but it's
> a flavor of PD. I'm not a lawyer, so I won't even try to get into it.
> Essentially, the USGS would be putting some significant effort directly into

If USGS data is essentially PD, OSM may be able to use it, but USGS
won’t necessarily be able to distribute OSM data like PD. It has the
rights for its own data, but not that of others.

> the development of OSM if it weren't for the license issue.

Which one?

If it’s that the data is intended to be distributed under a specific
license, which is how I read this (something like PD), then OSM should
be able to use it. USGS might not be able to use OSM itself, but they
still have the rights to their data so they can use it however they
wish.

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 836 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/legal-general/attachments/20100719/238f3eb8/attachment.pgp>