[OSM-legal-talk] License update

[Richard Fairhurst]

Peter,

> I posted a query about various 'Use Cases' for OSM data in regard to the new
> licence on the 7th Feb. See archive here:
>
> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/legal-talk/2008-February/000680.htm
> l
>
> I was concerned to see that the answers received were not conclusive and
> that no response has been given by a qualified lawyer.

The answers given _on_this_list_ are never going to be conclusive  
because we are all mappers, not lawyers.

We've taken into account your feedback, along with everyone else's, in  
the response that OSMF has submitted to Jordan (as co-author of the  
Open Data Commons) licence. (For what it's worth, as the person who  
drew up OSMF's response to Open Data Commons, I can happily assure you  
that your contribution took more hours to incorporate into the  
response than any other!)

Jordan is, of course, a qualified lawyer (in some jurisdictions) and  
will be consulting further with experts in the field of EU database  
law. He has come back to us with further queries and we are aiming to  
express the will of the community and the best interests of OSM in our  
response to him. As OSMF, we are more than confident that his  
consultation will take into account current pressures and debates in  
data licensing.

The licence "working group" (Steve, Andy and I) have to reconcile many  
different philosophies of licensing, enforceability in different  
jurisdictions, the likelihood of adoption by the community, and how  
affordable all of this work is. We cannot snap our fingers and  
magically come up with an answer that will suit everyone. We are  
optimistic, however, that by balancing the many different opinions and  
pressures, we will be able to propose a solution that is acceptable to  
the community and an overall improvement.

Please don't think that legal-talk is a direct "ask a lawyer"  
channel. It isn't. However, all the responses to the licence  
consultation - via this list, via the wiki, and via private e-mail -  
have been taken into account in OSMF's ongoing licence discussions. I  
personally have spent enough furrowed-brow evenings gathering together  
people's contributions that I can assure you every throwaway comment  
has been listened to.

Ultimately OSMF will propose a licensing option to the community, and  
it is up to the community to accept it or not. We are very optimistic  
that, aided by the feedback here, the discussions we are having right  
now are the best option for OSM now and in the future. We cannot and  
will not force a licence on anyone, but we are taking a great deal of  
time over this to ensure that what we present to the community is as  
appropriate, watertight and future-proofed as it can be. I hope that  
you and others will recognise that, even if we can't please all the  
people all the time, we have gone to a great deal of effort to find  
the best, and most robsut, solution for the developing community as a  
whole.

Richard
for OSMF