[OSM-legal-talk] ODbL: How obscure/inaccessible can published algorithms be?

[Matt Amos]

On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 3:43 PM, 80n <80n80n at gmail.com> wrote:
> On what basis can you demand from company B that they release their
> intermediate database?  You don't know (for sure) that they have an
> intermediate database.  The ODbL doesn't give you any rights to ask company
> A to warrant that they are not using an intermediate database.

company B is required, under the ODbL, to provide an offer of their
derived database (or a diff, etc...).

> What kind of duck test can you use to be sure that a derived database is
> involved in the process?

if you suspect that someone is using a derived database, and isn't
making an offer of it, you are suspecting that they are in breach of
the ODbL. this can be tested by asking the company and, if they don't
provide a satisfactory response, legal proceedings could follow.

this is similar to the AGPL. if you suspected that someone was
distributing or allowing "users [to] interact[...] remotely through a
computer network" with a derivative version of AGPL'd code, you could
ask them where the corresponding offer is and, if they don't provide a
satisfactory response, legal proceedings could follow.

cheers,

matt