[OSM-legal-talk] Licensing

[David Groom]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Karran" <dan at karran.net>
To: "David Groom" <reviews at pacific-rim.net>
Cc: <legal-talk at openstreetmap.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 3:26 PM
Subject: Re: [OSM-legal-talk] Licensing


> On 7/6/06, David Groom <reviews at pacific-rim.net> wrote:
>
>> When you create an account on OSM  the web page has the following text on
>> it:
>>
>> "Fill in the form, we'll send you an email to confirm you're you and
>> activate your account.
>>
>> By creating an account, you agree that all work uploaded to
>> openstreetmap.org and all data created by use of any tools on
>> openstreetmap.org is to be licensed under this Creative Commons license."
>
> Surely we can't impose a licence on people for the data they create in
> any of the tools? I would have thought it would only be at the point
> where that data is being shared with OpenStreetMap, and only at that
> point the licence should apply. Otherwise it's like Microsoft saying,
> for example, that all users of MS Word must licence the data they
> create and store on their own machine under the licence of their
> choosing...
>
>
> (just my 2 euro cents)
>
> Dan
>


I have to admit when I read the current wording  which has the words "all 
data created by use of any tools on openstreetmap.org" I too was a bit 
surprised as that would appear to cover work that I might do using GPX 
tracks obtained by myself and never uploaded to OSM, edited using JOSM, and 
rendered using osmarender. However I then assumed that as JOSM was 
downloaded from openstreetmap that it didn't apply to that.

I was going to suggest the actual wording needs changing to something like :

"By creating an account, you agree that all work uploaded to 
openstreetmap.org and all data / products derived from data on 
openstreetmap.org is to be licensed under this Creative Commons license"

However as the licensing seems to be open to debate, maybe we should just 
leave things as there are for the moment?

David