[OSM-legal-talk] ODbL License + Outline Procedure

Grant Slater openstreetmap at firefishy.com
Fri Feb 27 10:09:34 GMT 2009


The OSMF License Working Group is excited and pleased to announce the 
completion of legal drafting and review by our legal counsel of the new 
proposed license, the Open Database License Agreement (ODbL).

The working group have put much effort in to inputting OSMs needs and 
supporting the creation of this license however OpenStreetMap's 
expertise is not in law. Therefore, we have worked with the license 
authors and others to build a suitable home where a community and 
process can be built around it. Its new home is with the Open Data 
Commons http://www.opendatacommons.org. We encourage the OSM community 
join in the Open Data Commons comments process from today to make sure 
that the license is the best possible license for us.

The license remains firmly rooted in the attribution, share-alike 
provisions of the existing Creative Commons License but the ODbL is far 
more suitable for open factual databases rather than the creative works 
of art. It extends far greater potential protection and is far clearer 
when, why and where the share-alike provisions are triggered.

The license is now available at 
http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/ and you are welcome to 
make final comments about the license itself via a wiki and mailing list 
also at http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/ up until 20th 
March 23:59 GMT. To be clear, this process is led by the ODC and 
comments should be made there as part of that process.

Attached below is our proposed adoption plan and the latest will be at 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/Implementation_Plan 
. This is not cast in stone and we welcome direct comments on the 
discussion page for the plan:  
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Open_Data_License/Implementation_Plan 
.
In summary, we'd like to give time for final license comments to be 
absorbed, ask OSMF members to vote on whether they wish to put the 
current version of the new license to the community for adoption and 
then begin the adoption process itself. The board has decided to wait 
until the final version before formally reviewing the license.

Our legal counsel has also responded to the OSM-contributed Use Cases 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_Licence/Use_Cases and his 
responses have been added there. OSMFs legal counsel also recommends the 
use of the Factual Information License 
http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/fil/ for the individual 
contributions from individual data contributors, and any aggregation 
covered by the ODbL.

There other open issues that we seek OSM community support and input on. 
If you would like to help, please give input at 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/Implementation_Issues

For instance: Who actually should be the licensor of the ODbL license? 
The OSM Foundation is the logical choice but are there any alternatives? 
And implementation What Ifs ... for example, what if the license is not 
accepted?

Thank you for your patience with this process. The license working group 
looks forward to working with community input and an opening up of the 
process.

--------------
All dates approximate for review.

License Plan

27th February:
    *      This draft adoption plan made public to legal and talk list 
with the draft license text made available by the Open Data Commons 
(with facility for comments back) . Local contacts asked to assist in 
passing on the message, and subsequent announcements.

2nd March:
    *     Working group meeting. Finalise implementation plan following 
review of plan comments; What If scenario planning.

12th March:
    *     Working group meeting. Review of community feedback received 
to date.

20th March:
    *    End of ODbL comment period.

28 March:
    *    ODbL 1.0 is expected to be released by Open Data Commons at The 
Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon) London event.

31st March:
    *   OSMF Board endorses licence and asks OSMF members (as of 23rd 
January)  to vote (1 week) on whether ODbL 1.0 should be put to the 
community for adoption.

What follows is based on a positive response from the OSMF members...

+ 1 week:
    *     Website only allows you to log in and use API when you have 
set yes/no on new license. New signups agree to both licenses. Sign up 
page still says dual licensing so that we can release planet etc. People 
who have made zero edits are automatically moved over to new license and 
are emailed a notice.
    *     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 as there may be a 
requirement to ultimately remove the users data. This will help stop 
people accidentally clicking 'no'. Sign up page now states you agree to 
license your changes under both CCBYSA and also ODbL.

+ 2 weeks?
    * Require people to respond to the licensing question. How? Should 
we deny API access otherwise?

+1 month:
    *     Working group meeting. Assessment of number of no responses 
and number of people who haven't said either way. Emails ready to send 
to contact those who have not clicked yes or no. Personal outreach to 
those who have said no.
 
+ 2 months??
    * Final cut-off.  What do we do with the people who have said no or 
not responded?





More information about the legal-talk mailing list