[OSM-legal-talk] Question about the license for the software that uses data derived from OSM's database

[Jochen Topf]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 04:17:27PM +0000, Hugh Hulme wrote:
> Hey guys, I've got some questions...
> 
> Let's say I've taken the OSM data and turned it - using software I've
> written - into Shapefiles so that I can pass that through another piece of
> software to create data for my (commercial) application to use.
> 
> The Shapefiles then inherit the same CC-BY-SA license, but do I have to
> distribute them and/or make them available? Is it sufficient to inform my
> customers that they may have the data under that license if they want it? Do
> I even need to do that? The data at this point is only used within my
> organisation. What about the data generated (Voronoid cells, junction map)
> from the Shapefiles which is specifically formatted for the code I've
> written to take advantage of that data? It's in the SQL Server database that
> each customer has, so presumably I need to put a note somewhere to say
> they're free to use it if they want to - but do I have to make it available
> online somewhere? Presumably the code which reads from the database is
> exempt because it's not part of the data - and the data, being in a SQL
> Server database, is not an integral part of the software. (Indeed, the
> software is perfectly capable of running without that data, or any data at
> all.)

1. Data and software are completely separate. The license for one
doesn't affect the other.

2. You are not required to publish anything. As long as you use the data
in house, you can do whatever you want with it. Only IF you publish it,
you have to tell people where it is from and give them the same
rights/license you got, CC-BY-SA.

Jochen
-- 
Jochen Topf  jochen at remote.org  http://www.remote.org/jochen/  +49-721-388298