[OSM-legal-talk] A simplification of the agreement on thesignup page.

Peter Miller peter.miller at itoworld.com
Sun Mar 1 17:34:40 GMT 2009


On 1 Mar 2009, at 17:11, OJ W wrote:

> On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 4:53 PM, Nic Roets <nroets at gmail.com> wrote:
>> But at least one of the OSMF members (Mikel?)
>> was opposed to it because it's so easy to get OSMF membership (and as
>> a consequence a controlling majority on the board).
>
> Did someone calculate how much it would cost to buy the OSMF? (i.e.
> how many membership fees you'd need to pay to have the controlling
> vote, assuming you had a supply of people to accept the memberships
> and do the voting)

It is also interesting to note that a quorum for a board meeting is  
two and that the chairman has a casting vote. "The Board may meet  
together for the dispatch of business, adjourn and otherwise regulate  
their meetings as they think fit, and determine the quorum necessary  
for the transaction of business. Unless otherwise determined, two  
shall be a quorum. Questions arising at any meeting shall be decided  
by a majority of votes. In case of an equality of votes the Chairman  
shall have a second or casting vote."
http://foundation.openstreetmap.org/articles-of-association/

I have advocated for some time now that the articles of association  
need to be tightened up. I suggest that for now we assume that we can  
resolve these vulnerabilities of the OSMF as a separate issue and  
concentrate on the licence for now.

With regard to up-issuing the license then I believe it is the open  
knowledge foundation that would hold the keys, not the OSMF. Possibly  
I am wrong. I don't know a lot about the OKF and intend to find out  
more.

Again.... Can we please please have some authoritative input from  
someone on the OSMF board who has been in on these discussions. It is  
clear from comments on the list in the past 24 hours that the  
directors who are currently engaged in this conversation have not be  
involved in these discussions at board level.  I wonder who has?  
anyone? or has it all be 'left to the lawyers'?  Steve? Where is  
Steve, has anyone seen him recently on this list... (sorry to be  
bitchy, but it does seem bizarre at present that no one is able to  
answer any of these questions)


Regards,


Peter




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