[OSM-legal-talk] Houses of cards

[rob at robmyers.org]

Quoting SteveC <steve at asklater.com>:

> On 21 Feb 2008, at 08:47, Rob Myers wrote:
>> - I have violated the contract but I am completely anonymous and
>> untraceable. Nobody can find out who I am to do anything about this.
>> And
>> OSM would want copyright restored not damages anyway, which isn't
>> possible.
>
> That's nice. And it's what people do every day with mp3s and movies.
> What's your point?

That it remains illegal to copy the mp3s and movies once people have  
done that, but it doesn't remain illegal to do so once people have  
done it with geodata.

And that the continuing absence of permission is the basis of  
copyleft's ability to protect users (not projects) from their rights  
being removed by upstream users.

An unknown third party popping a song from EMI on Gnutella won't  
result in Sony re-releasing it with DRM attached. But OSM data on  
Gnutella could be so encumbered.

If this is considered a low-probability risk, or if we are expecting  
people who would otherwise gladly accept "fenced" data to accept moral  
arguments when they are expressed as easily worked-around legal claims  
then OK. :-)

- Rob.