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

Rob Myers rob at robmyers.org
Fri Jul 16 15:25:25 BST 2010


On 07/16/2010 01:01 PM, James Livingston wrote:
> On 16/07/2010, at 6:35 PM, Rob Myers wrote:
>> ODbL is a comparable licence to BY-SA, with the main change being that it has actually been written to cover data. If people don't relicence because they are afraid not enough people will relicence then that will be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
>
> While that is definitely one of the main changes, it's not the only one - there is also:
> * Tiles do not have to be under the same license as the DB (whether or not people realised what when originally choosing CC-BY-SA)

Yes as a copyleft zealot I'm not happy about that but it would be 
impractical otherwise, I believe. It retains as much share-alike as is 
practical.

> * It also uses contract law, which makes things a *lot* more complicated

The contract law part of the ODbL is the aspect of it that I personally 
am least comfortable with.

> Since we're not voting on ODbL, but ODbL + contributor terms, there's also:
> * Changing the licence in future may not require your permission (if you do contribute for a while, or are un-contactable for three weeks)

If there are not safeguards around such relicencing there should be.

> * Currently you can import any data with a compatible licence (e.g. CC-BY-SA, CC-BY), you can't if we change without the copyright holder's permission

CC haven't declared any other licences compatible with BY-SA yet so 
that's not a major change.

>> BY-SA does not protect the freedom to use OSM data in Australia. Trying to continue pretending that it does doesn't serve the interests of Australians.

I've been corrected on this so I withdraw the claim.

> Assuming you mean protecting contributor's right to be attributed a number of Australian groups would disagree - including our government.

BY-SA (2.0 Generic 4.c) contains a number of limits to attribution. I 
think we've discussed "appropriate to the medium" on this list in the 
past for example.

I believe that the practical effect of the ODbL for attribution will be 
similar to BY-SA works that attribute via a URL.

- Rob.




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