[OSM-legal-talk] Houses of cards

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

>> 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".

Apart from some esoteric inheritance cases perhaps, you cannot, ever,  
become party to a contract without making a decision to do so. That's  
the very basis of contracts. (See also the Wikipedia entry for  
"Contract": "In common law, there are three key elements to the  
creation of a contract. These are offer and acceptance,  
consideration, and an intention to create legal relations. In civil  
law systems the concept of consideration is not central. In addition,  
for some contracts formalities must be complied with under what is  
sometimes called a statute of frauds.")

> 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).

Yes, and "doing them right" includes, as the very first thing listed  
on that page:

"It starts with reasonable notice. You want these online agreements  
to be as obvious as possible. If you decide to use “browsewrap,” the  
“Terms and Conditions” link should appear on every page and your  
websurfer shouldn’t have to scroll down to see the link."

Now since we assume A to be evil, A will certainly publish the data  
without any notice whatsoever about a contract that you are supposed  
to enter by browsing. The result is that B who browses A's offerings  
can never ever become party to a contract he doesn't know anything  
about.

Bye
Frederik

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