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

[TimSC]

On 23/07/10 12:39, Richard Fairhurst wrote:
>
> 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.
>    
I think I understand there is a potential issue but I am still not 
"getting it". Thanks for trying to explain it to me though.

> The database is available under a particular licence which is separate to
> the licence of the contributions.
>    
This is the bit I guess I still don't fully understand. If I have only 
agreed to CC-BY-SA, how does this relate to what you have said? What are 
the separate licenses? I guess you are going to say CC-BY-SA completely 
fails to address the database rights issue.

Imagine if several users upload their own PD data to a central server 
(imagine it is exclusively PD on this server). Is a database right 
automatically created and who owns it? It can't be the contributors 
because they waived their IP rights(?). Does the server owner get the 
database rights? If so, we can ask them to waive their rights. To what 
extent is our mixed licensing situation different?

On 23/07/10 12:52, Andy Allan wrote:
> 2) There's clearly not enough legalese there for it to be effective :-)
That's a good point, actually. We could do with beefed up wording.

On 23/07/10 13:09, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> However, as Richard correctly pointed out, PD content wrapped in a 
> ODbL database does not allow this kind of use. One of the very reasons 
> ODbL was chosen is that (at least in some jurisdiction) copyright on 
> facts is either very weak or non-existent, so ODbL has necessarily 
> been built in a way to protect the database even if the content was 
> without legal protection. Naturally this applies to PD content as well. 
You talk as if ODbL was a reality. I suspect it might be soon, but 
currently it is not in effect. How does the current license situation 
block PD? I am assuming each PD declaration is in effect immediately, 
while ODbL has yet to be adopted.

TimSC