[OSM-legal-talk] New license: What is publication/distribution?

Richard Fairhurst richard at systemeD.net
Mon Oct 6 12:53:20 BST 2008


Frederik Ramm wrote:

> There is one other thing I would hope the new license addresses,
> which is very unclear at the moment: When does something count as
> "published"?

"4.2 Notices. You must, if You publicly Use by any means and in any  
form, this Database, any Derivative Database, or the Database as part  
of a Collective Database: [...]"

"4.4. Share Alike. a. Any Derivative Database You publicly Use by any  
means and in any form, must be only under the terms of: i. This  
Licence; ii. A later version of this Licence; iii. A compatible  
licence."

"4.5... c. Use of a Derivative Database wholly internally to an  
organisation is not to the public and therefore does not fall under  
the requirements of Section 4.4."

And from the preamble:

"'Use' - As a verb, means doing any act that is restricted by  
Database Rights or copyright and neighbouring rights whether in the  
original medium or any other; and includes modifying the Database as  
may be technically necessary to use it in a different mode or format."

So my reading is that, at present, "wholly internally to an  
organisation" would not include "off-site contractors" of the type  
you describe.

cheers
Richard




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