[OSM-legal-talk] Fwd: Re: [OSM-talk] OSM layer into Adobe Illustrator?

[OJW]

On Tuesday 27 February 2007 17:12, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> > Then going PD would be catastrophic, as it would hinder widespread use
>
> I don't see why. A lot of data that is PD is also in widespread use.
> (Aren't we using height contours and coastlines that are PD?)

If you just happen to start with a complete, finished set of data that you 
want people to use (as NASA/NGA etc did), then that would be fine.

Similarly, if one person created the entire dataset on their own and wanted 
maximum usage of it, then again PD would be a good choice.

The problem is _creating_ and maintaining that data when a large number of 
people with diverse interests need to cooperate to make it happen.  The 
default is for such people not to trust each other with unrestricted access 
to their own valuable data, which is where copyleft licenses come in, by 
providing a set of "share alike" rules which means that nobody who 
contributes data can fail to get the full benefit from it.

Regards,

OJW