[OSM-legal-talk] Re-licensing and public domain contribution as an user option

[Gioele]

Hello,

as OpenStreetMap is about to enter its re-licensing process, may I suggest 
to take into account also the possibility of public domain contributions?

There Optional public domain licensing proposal [1] is still in draft 
status. It suggest, among many things, a new user option that users can use 
to show the contributor's will to release its contribution to the public 
domain. Similarly, the ODbL Implementation plan [2] plans in week 2:

  Website to allow users to voluntarily agree to new license.
  Design allows you to click yes, or if you disagree a further page
  explaining the position and asking to reconsider...

Instead of choosing between re-licensing to ODbL and having their 
contribution removed, they could choose to release their contribution (past 
and future) into public domain.

Please note that the wiki contains few hundreds users that used the PD-user  
template to show their intention [3]. Given the cumbersome process one has 
to go through (search around info about how to release contributions into 
PD, signup to wiki, create page, add template) about 300 users is not a 
small group and demonstrates interest in public domain contributions.

In the end: given that the website has to be modified to allow new and old  
users to actively choose the license of their contributions, would it be  
possible to add public domain to the available option?

[1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Optional_public_domain_licensing
[2] 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/Implementation_Plan#Week_2
[3]  
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:Users_whose_contributions_are_in_the_public_domain

-- 
Gioele <gioele at svario.it>