[OSM-legal-talk] Transformed OSM data and CC-BY-SA

[rob at robmyers.org]

Quoting Jeffrey Martin <dogshed at gmail.com>:

> I suppose my opinion is that all the regular derivative questions are
> still there,
> but using a proprietary storage method by itself does not create a derivative
> work.

If a derivative is not created then copying the converted data is  
considered to be the same as copying the original data. In either case  
the copying is covered by the licence on the original work and is  
therefore under the terms of BY-SA.

People seem happy to apply CC licences to Word documents, MP3 files  
and other proprietary or royalty-and-patent-encumbered blobs. But  
these are not designed to defeat copying. I don't know whether the  
proprietary format under discussion here is or not. If it is then that  
could be an issue.

OSM having the original data doesn't affect whether the data encoded  
in the company's specific file format has to be BY-SA or not; the data  
does have to be BY-SA. But software that uses or accompanies it does  
not, as Peter Miller explains.

- Rob.