[OSM-legal-talk] Q&A with a lawyer

[Peter Miller]

On 12 May 2009, at 08:00, Simon Ward wrote:

> On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 08:14:49AM +0200, Frederik Ramm wrote:
>> What I'm concerned with is mainly: How big is the risk of someone
>> "whitewashing" our data from the contractual part of the ODbL, then
>> introducing it to a large jurisdiction without something like a  
>> database
>> directive (the US?), and thereby leaving us with only plain copyright
>> which (correct me if I'm wrong) we choose not to exercise by applying
>> the DbCL?
>
> I’m (still) of the opinion that we shouldn’t just throw copyright to  
> the
> wind in this way while some people (OS, for example) believe they can
> exercise copyright over elements of geodata, and not just database
> right.  They might be right, or wrong.  I hope they’re wrong, but it’s
> not very well tested.

+1

Our lawyer is very clear that copyright is a valid and important  
element in the set of rights we need to defend in relation to the OSM  
mapping data. As such the Content License should ensure that those  
rights are maintained.

Regards,



Peter
>