[OSM-legal-talk] ODbL "virality" questions

[Richard Fairhurst]

Matt Amos wrote:
> are you suggesting that we change our guideline on what is substantial?

I am. Well, not so much "change", more "clarify".


"Substantial" in EU Database Directive terms can mean quantitative  
and/or qualitative.

I agree that extracting a "pubs of Britain" dataset and distributing  
it would be quantitatively substantial, so the ODbL Derivative  
Database applies.

However, in this case, we have a Collective Database made up of these  
three databases:

1. OSM pubs (Derivative Database)
2. CiderInTheMorning data (presumably proprietary)
3. table mapping OSM ids to CITM ids

The third table is _not_ qualitatively substantial, as the OSM<->CITM  
mapping (done by name and locality matching) does not "represent, in  
terms of obtaining, verification or presentation, significant  
investment".

Nor is it quantitatively substantial, because it doesn't contain any  
actual OSM data.

Therefore it isn't a Derivative Database.

I think this flows clearly from ODBL but that we could do with a brief  
clarification in our guidelines to reassure people this is ok.

cheers
Richard