[OSM-legal-talk] ITO Legal advice

[Peter Miller]

Ito World Ltd has now taken its own advice on the new draft licence and also
on legal issues more generally.

 

Fyi, our brief was firstly a selfish one, ie can ITO use the data for OSM
for the purposes for which ITO wants to use it (ie some of the use cases on
the wiki), the second was about the common good, ie is the legal situation
for project and the foundation sound. We are as serious about the second as
the first, but need to distinguish between them.

 

We received our initial advice in writing yesterday. The general message was
that there was a significant amount of legal tidying up that was needed
across the board and that the licence in particular needs some significant
work in a number of areas, but that it was achievable.

 

We have forwarded this initial advice to 1) Jordan, 2) the Foundation (via
the secretary), 3) Cloud Made (via Nick Black) and also 4) to SteveC - who I
understand is wearing an OSMF hat for this work.

 

It has been suggested on the list that the OSMF pro-bono lawyer should talk
directly to the community; that is of course up the Foundation but it must
be remembered that these people are exceedingly expensive and the
communication would need to be kept very tight and structured (even if they
are working for free). Personally I suggest that the Brief and the Use Cases
are used at the main interface between the legal working party and the
community. I will ask our lawyer to provide an opinion on the various Use
Cases in due course and make that available to the community through the
wiki.

 

 

Does that make sense?

 

 

 

Peter

 

 

Peter Miller

CEO, Ito World Ltd

 

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