[OSM-legal-talk] Newbie question - restrictions on the use of OpenStreetMap data.

[Richard Fairhurst]

Greg Mitchell wrote:

>    Apologies for the newbie question, but could anyone tell me (or indeed
> point me at a relevant discussion thread in the archives) what the
> restrictions are on the use of OpenStreetMap data?
>
>    In particular, can the data be used for commercial services or trials,
> and if so under what conditions?  What kind of licence is applied to the
> data?

Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0.

Basically means:

a) freely copiable;
b) you have to give credit to OSM;
c) anything you create using OSM data needs to be distributed under  
the same terms.

We are considering changing to a different licence, the Open Database  
Licence, which offers better protection, and more clarity about the  
definition of "anything you create using OSM data".

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Legal_FAQ
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Open_Data_License

cheers
Richard