[OSM-legal-talk] Waiving attribution illegal in any country/-ies?

[Frederik Ramm]

Niklas,

Niklas Cholmkvist wrote:
> Previously I've been wanting a Public Domain("PD") map multilicensed
> under various PD licenses like CC0, WTFPL etc...but is this even
> possible? (waiving attribution requirement)

The "PD is not possible in your country" is a canard that comes up every 
now and then. My suggestion is to ignore it as an irrelevant technicality.

In many countries your right to be identified as the author of a work is 
inalienable (provided the work passes certain minimum requirements). 
This means that you cannot sell this right to someone completely (i.e. 
you cannot sell the fact that you are the author of the work).

You can usually sell away most of the other rights that stem from 
copyright, i.e. you can sell an exclusive license to use your work to 
someone else, and from then on you can't even use your work yourself 
without asking them. But this is, in many countries, not possible with 
your right to attribution, i.e. the other person cannot buy from you 
your right to be named as the author.

But that does not prevent you from granting others a perpetual 
non-retractable license to use your work without naming you as the 
author - which is something completely different!

Thus, no problems with CC0, WTFPL etc. on that side.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"