[OSM-legal-talk] License Cut-over and critical mass

[Richard Fairhurst]

Tobias Knerr wrote:
> And exactly that is the problem. Mappers didn't have a say in 
> starting the license change process

Yes, they did. After about four years of licence discussion among mappers,
OSMF held a vote last autumn in which 89% of respondees approved the process
(http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/2009-December/000753.html).

In addition, OSMF holds annual elections where anyone can stand and put
forward their views, and if elected, work to have them implemented - exactly
the same way that your country's democracy works.

Of course, not everyone is a member of OSMF, but if you don't choose to get
involved in the running of the project then you can't really complain if
decisions are taken that aren't to your liking.

Don't forget: you own the rights to your data (insofar as any rights exist).
All the software is open source. OSMF owns nothing. The only power that OSMF
has is to determine what's hosted at openstreetmap.org, because it's the
legal owner of the domain. If OSMF makes a stupid decision then you can set
up freestreetmap.org with the same tools, all the existing data, and the
existing licence. 

cheers
Richard
-- 
View this message in context: http://gis.638310.n2.nabble.com/License-Cut-over-and-critical-mass-tp5279719p5286860.html
Sent from the Legal Talk mailing list archive at Nabble.com.