[OSM-legal-talk] (Not) "Removing" data

[Mike Collinson]

At 12:30 AM 10/08/2010, Simon Ward wrote:
>Note: I’ve compared copyright infringement to theft, and I apologise.
>When you copy, you don’t take anything tangible away from the owner¹;
>when you steal, you deprive the owner of something they once had. 

No problem, that was a good part of what the original question was about ... the ethics of the intangible.

Here's two specific examples.

One, we may a good case to leave in "insubstantial" contributions.  How nice should we be?

Two, we have at least one contributor who has sadly passed away. Normally, the executors/inheritors of the estate would be approached.  But what is the benefit to them?  This is one reason I am very keen on leaving future license changes to then active contributors,  I really, really don't want folks to have to ask my daughter's permission just to keep open data relevant and useful in a changing world.

Mike