[OSM-legal-talk] PD declaration non binding?

Richard Fairhurst richard at systemed.net
Fri Jul 23 12:39:48 BST 2010


TimSC wrote:
> I don't get that impression when I read the wiki. It says it is only 
> a "statement" and making this statement does not change "what 
> people can do with your data".

To get the data, people have to access the database.

The database is available under a particular licence which is separate to
the licence of the contributions.

If you could magically get at the PD data without accessing it from the OSM
database (i.e. you asked the user for a local copy that they had saved on
their computer before uploading it to OSM), then the PD declaration on its
own would be sufficient.

But if you can't do this, you have to get it through the OSM database; and
OSM's licence restricts how you are allowed to interact with any contents
that are obtained from this database.

Do you see?

(This isn't specific to ODbL or the OSMF Contributor Terms. Depending on
phrasing, it could also apply to CC-BY-SA for countries where a database
copyright exists. OSM and OSMF appear not to have made any statement about
exercising any database copyright for extraction of PD material from a
CC-BY-SA-licenced OSM; personally I think it would be a
<london_cabbie>diabolical liberty</london_cabbie> for me to map an entire
city as PD and then for OSMF to prevent people from downloading it as PD,
but it may be something they could consider doing. Add usual disclaimer
about not being a lawyer here, etc.)

cheers
Richard
-- 
View this message in context: http://gis.638310.n2.nabble.com/OSM-legal-talk-PD-declaration-non-binding-tp5329076p5329179.html
Sent from the Legal Talk mailing list archive at Nabble.com.




More information about the legal-talk mailing list