[OSM-legal-talk] Houses of cards

[Charles Basenga Kiyanda]

Tom Hughes wrote:
> In message <47BDA26B.6050109 at kiyanda.com>
>         Charles Basenga Kiyanda <charles at kiyanda.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> Frederik Ramm wrote:
>>
>>     
>>>> I'm a bit confused. Isn't that situation, in US jurisdiction, a  
>>>> problem
>>>> with any copyleft license that would be adopted? I can do this with  
>>>> gpl
>>>> software, too. I can download the linux kernel, take away the license
>>>> notices and then sell it to someone to use in a proprietary product.
>>>>         
>>> No, because coypright applies to the Linux kernel, and the US law  
>>> does recognize that very well. The problem arises only with stuff  
>>> that is not copyrightable, such as factual data, onto which you try  
>>> to add restrictions.
>>>       
>> But then the point still stands that, in the US, any copyleft license 
>> would have the same result. Someone could take the data, strip the 
>> licensing notice and distribute it as his own?
>>     
>
> Yes, but you would be breaking the law and could be sued as 
> without the license granted you by the copyleft license you
> are left in the default position for any copyrighted work
> whereby copyright prevents you copying it.
>
> Tom
>
>   
I didn't think that point was contested by anyone. I thought the 
original point was about third party who obtain the unlicensed data (or 
at least data without the original license). That's a risk in the us 
with any copyleft license (or really any license at all?) applied to 
database data that's distributed freely.

Charles