[OSM-legal-talk] Houses of cards

[Richard Fairhurst]

Frederik Ramm wrote:

> To me at least, it seems obvious what Rob says. If you have something
> that is not copyrighted, and you give it someone [A] under a contract,
> and that person breaches te contract and publishes the data, then
> whatever you gave him is up for grabs by anyone [B] as they're not  
> party to the contract.

4.7 in ODC-Database says that, when that happens, a new  
relationship/contract is established between OSM and person B. It's  
"direct licensing", not "sub-licensing".

So person B is party to the contract, but you have the problem that  
they have not explicitly agreed to the contract. It's therefore assent  
by usage, aka browse-wrap, rather than the more watertight click-wrap.  
That's not ideal though it is, as far as I can tell, inevitable.

Nonetheless, browse-wrap contracts _can_ potentially be valid if done  
right  
(http://www.ecomputerlaw.com/articles/show_article.php?article=2006_clickwrap_and_browsewrap_agreements - hey, written by a lawyer). And there's still copyright protection, which as per prior post, may even apply in the  
US.

cheers
Richard