[OSM-legal-talk] CC-BY-SA for source data, other license for rendered derivatives

Frederik Ramm frederik at remote.org
Wed Feb 28 11:43:16 GMT 2007


Hi,

>> 3) When OSM source data is combined with other data to create a
>> rendered version,  if the  rendered version is then published, should
>> there be a requirement to publish the other data under CC-BY-SA, or
>> can it remain unpublished?
>
> This is the crux, I think.
>
> What I'm suggesting here, as a way forward, is a "data copyleft"
> licence. That would require that the other data were published as
> ShareAlike/copyleft.

We have to be careful not to make OSM unusable - against our  
interestes, I believe - for many purposes by asking for such a thing.

If someone bought proprietary data about, say, air pollution, with  
the right to create and publish maps from it but not the right to  
distribute the data, then a requirement like the one you sketched  
above would make it impossible for him to draw air pollution data  
onto OSM data and publish the resulting images, because that would  
force him to publish the air pollution data and he's not allowed to  
do that.

This would lead to dirty workarounds like: "I don't draw air  
pollution data onto OSM maps. I just give you one tile with OSM data  
on it and a completely unrelated tile with air pollution data on it,  
and I give you a map viewer that lets you view one on top of the  
other, but it isn't me who combines the data, it is you, the viewer..."

And I hate it when you have to invent such workarounds. You waste a  
lot of time and brain power to jump hurdles arbitrarily put in your  
way by people who like to see you jumping, and absolutely nothing  
good comes of it.

Do we want to create a map of the world, or do we want to see the  
world jumping our hurdles?

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00.09' E008°23.33'






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