[OSM-legal-talk] Someone already had a look at theBing TermsofUse?

[Anthony]

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 2:17 AM, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
> I believe you could also do other things with traced data but that would
> then be subject to the normal license, not the special license they granted
> to OpenStreetMap.

And how do believe they achieve that?  Through copyright law?  Through
contract law?  Through some other mechanism?

Would an ODbL fork be allowed?  What permits it?

The only way I can see interpreting the TOS such that contributions to
OSM are allowed, is that Microsoft is taking the (correct) position
that the copyright, if any, on then ways produced by using the aerial
maps, is owned by the person doing the mapping.

Basically, this seems like another case of IP protection via wishful
thinking.  If your interpretation held up in court, it really would be
quite horrible for the world.  Anyone could stop everyone else from
using facts about the world, by simply claiming that they can.  Maybe
this is already true in some backward countries, but I'd imagine most
of the world is much more sane than that, and I believe that the part
of the world I live in surely is, at least for the time being.