[OSM-legal-talk] Licensing Working Group report, 2009/01/22

Mikel Maron mikel_maron at yahoo.com
Thu Jan 22 21:59:11 GMT 2009


Hi Fredrik


> Will they be available to process our input after we see the text?
>
> Is there any plan for how our feedback will be processed before the 
> public is asked to accept the new license - will it be *our* job to take 
> the lawyers' version and our feedback and make something suitable from 
> it and then ask everyone to sign up, or will we collect our feedback and 
> then again wait for the lawyers to respond?

At the same time a first draft of the license is published, a community of users
and legal experts will be established for discussion and refinement of the license. 

We want to move ahead with this draft of the license asap. The license won't be perfect, 
but there will definitely be a process for feedback and improvements, and the license
will get there. In the immediate term, the OSM community kick starts this process
by first moving to the first draft of the ODL license.

> If I find some words in the draft that sound wrong or misleading or 
> unsuitable to me, then if I have details of their deliberations I can 
> decide whether the phrase I dislike is in fact a carefully crafted legal 
> construct that has taken them multiple attempts to get right in a legal 
> sense (in that case I won't even try to touch it), or whether it is just 
> something that was completely overlooked and never even discussed 
> between them (in that case I would perhaps suggest a change).

The details of their discussion won't be published. However, there will be
ample opportunity for detailed examination and discussion of the further versions.

> I am also, on a more general level, very interested in getting an 
> insight into the intensity of the exchange. Bluntly spoken, once a draft 
> is produced I want to know whether 100 man-days have gone into that or 
> just 5, which will also influence the respect I (and others) have for 
> the document. A document that is the result of a long and arduous 
> process will command more respect than one produced on a Starbucks 
> napkin ;-)

The lawyers are certainly taken this work very seriously. Whether or not
the back of any napkins were involved is not something I know about.

Mikel
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