[OSM-legal-talk] [OSM-talk] Community vs. Licensing

80n 80n80n at gmail.com
Wed Sep 1 09:15:06 BST 2010


On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 8:58 AM, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 3:35 AM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On 1 September 2010 17:30, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
> >> only the most presumptuous person would believe that a license they
> choose
> >> today will automatically be the best license for the project for all
> time.
> >
> > The sheer arrogance of all this is astounding, you and others are
> > telling all the current contributors that you know best, because you
> > are trying to speak for both people now and people in the future
> > without even asking people what they want.
>
> You seem to be sending your emails from OppositeLand, JohnSmith.
>
> The Contributor Terms, and specifically the relicensing term in term
> three are prudent because we know that it is impossible to know what
> license will be best for OSM in 6, 10 or 50 years.
>

I think the general view is that the project is currently licensed under
CC-BY-SA but that if you don't like it then you are free to fork.

Nobody is saying that CC-BY-SA is perfect.  It isn't but it works.  Look at
how quickly Waze reacted.  Not bad for a broken license, eh?

The great thing about the current license is that there's no coercion.  If
you don't like it or the licensed doesn't work for your use case then you
can just go ahead and start your own fork.  That's what those who are in
favour of ODbL should have done two years ago.

Instead we now have this ugly mess which is set to string out for a very
long time with continual disruption and damage to the project.



>
> That you assert that CC-By-SA is right for OSM now and will be the
> right license for OSM forevermore makes you the one claiming perfect
> foresight.
>

> That you claim that Frederik, or LWG, or OSMF Board are "are trying to
> speak for both people now and people in the future" in the very same
> breath is bold.  You know perfectly well that term three gives the
> decision on future licenses to future OSM active contributors, by 2/3
> majority vote.
>

Frederik's argument that we cannot predict what future generations will want
is quite fallacious.  We have a responsibility to do the right thing now and
not leave a mess someone else to sort out later.



>
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