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

[Andy Allan]

On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 12:26 AM, TimSC <mapping at sheerman-chase.org.uk> wrote:
> The new contributor rights also waters down my effective
> veto rights to control future licenses.

That's one of its great strengths - 150,000 people each with a veto is
not a community, it's a recipe for nothing to change. Could you
imagine if we all had vetos over every other part of the project? The
new logo? Or if everyone got a veto on every post to the mailing list?
None of my emails would ever get through ;-)

> I feel OSMF have overstepping their
> stewardship bounds to become the gatekeepers.

I disagree - the proposed contributor terms has the OSMF being the
"stewards" when suggesting future license changes (and presumably
doing stewardship type things with getting legal advice etc) but the
gatekeepers are now a large majority of the active contributors,
without any effective vetos from un-contactable people. It solidifies
the community as being more important than particular individuals,
which I'm happy to see.

Cheers,
Andy