[OSM-legal-talk] PD vs SA: The eternal battle

Frederik Ramm frederik at remote.org
Sat Oct 25 21:43:05 BST 2008


Hi,

Jonathan Harley wrote:
> The principle
> that if commercial companies use OSM data, they must be forced to give
> away their proprietary data as well? If so, that's not a principle I
> share.

+1

> I disagree, community projects (like everyone else) *should* practice
> random acts of kindness.

+1

> And I believe the OSM community would be
> better served by being more business-friendly.

Well, the OSM community is actually not business-unfriendly at all. Many 
spare time data collection projects use explicit non-commercial licenses 
(e.g. CC-BY-SA-NC) which is a major pain if you want to use the data for 
anything else than play. Thankfully, OSM doesn't, and there aren't even 
people to demand that.

Also, believe it or not, depending on the kind of business you have in 
mind, the share-alike element with its - perceived - higher degree of 
safety against hostile take-overs is actually regarded as useful by some 
business users.

If you just want an "one-off" use of the data then you wouldn't care a 
lot, and probably prefer PD because that means you don't have to think 
as much. But if you intend to build a larger business model on the 
assumption that the OSM community will still be there three years hence, 
then there's a possibility that you'll like the share-alike approach 
more because you feel it lends the project more stability.

Also, share-alike ensures that you will have more and better insight 
into what the competition is doing (while at the same time having to 
give them more insight into your work of course). This situation could 
help some business models, especially those which are not so much built 
on original work. (If you're very innovative then having to share is 
perhaps not so good for you, but if the others are more innovative than 
you then you get to participate from their work.)

I still think PD wins at the end of the day, but it would be wrong to 
dismiss share-alike as a business-unfriendly concept altogether. In 
fact, with its attempt to codify "moral" issues, as I have outlined in 
another posting, it is probably geared even more towards the needs of 
businesses than those of humans.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"




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