[OSM-legal-talk] Progressing OSM to a new dataLicence regime

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

>> Surely if someone breaches contract you would sue them to, well, stop
>> breaching the contract?

I don't know if this is so easy. If someone breaches a contract, the  
normal thing to happen is that the other side loses their contractual  
obligation. Normal contracts are "I do this for you if you do that  
for me", and if one side doesn't to their part then the other side  
stops doing theirs, and if any monetary damage arises you can sue for  
damages.

> Injunctive relief is the other option, yes.

None of the "common reasons for restraining orders" on http:// 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injunction would apply in our case but I'd be  
happy to hear from someone with a legal background.

As for the punitive damages mentioned by Tom, http://en.wikipedia.org/ 
wiki/Punitive_damages says that "punitive damages are awarded only in  
special cases, [...] Punitive damages cannot generally be awarded in  
contract disputes."

I'm not a lawyer as you know, and I know that in court anything is  
possible, but all this sounds to me as if the hopes of ever getting  
more than US$ 0.00 of damages out of someone who violates our  
contract are rather slim indeed. In fact, I am close to accuse anyone  
presenting this as a working way to enforce the license ("well where  
there's no database law the license works as a contract, yippie,  
problem solved!") of demagogy, or at least spreading misinformation.

Bye
Frederik

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