[OSM-legal-talk] To calm some waters - about Section 3

[Anthony]

On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 3:24 AM, Simon Ward <simon at bleah.co.uk> wrote:
> There is already the ability to change the licence without the CTs:
> There is an upgrade clause in the ODbL itself.

Actually, section 3 will make it harder to upgrade.  Under the CT
section 3, the database can only be licensed under "ODbL 1.0 for the
database and DbCL 1.0 for the individual contents of the database;
CC-BY-SA 2.0; or another free and open license. Which other free and
open license is chosen by a vote of the OSMF membership and approved
by at least a 2/3 majority vote of active contributors."

So if ODbL upgrades to 1.1, there has to be a 2/3 majority vote of
active contributors before OSMF can switch.  Anyone making a
derivative of the OSMF database can use 1.1, but OSMF can't.  What
this means practically speaking is that until there is a 2/3 majority
vote, the database is under ODbL 1.0 *and* ODbL 1.1.

Presumably if the bug in ODbL 1.0 is serious enough there won't be a
problem getting that 2/3 majority vote though.