[OSM-legal-talk] Noise vs unanswered questions

Richard Weait richard at weait.com
Wed Sep 1 22:59:46 BST 2010


Well we try to answer questions as quickly as possible.  Some answers
depend on further meetings, others depend on replies from busy
professionals.  Some answers get lost in the mundane reality of day to
day life.

Here are a couple of answers for questions that were asked a few weeks
back.  Not your questions perhaps, but answers to community questions
nonetheless.
DRAFT
http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/Contributor_Terms_FAQ
DRAFT
As it says, this is a draft, so expect more answers over time.

You ask again how much data loss is acceptable?  And this has been
answered before as, "That depends on the local and global context of
the particular data."  I don't think that this question is unanswered
so much as it is unanswerable.  Of course every contributor will have
their own opinion on how much, and on a particular piece of the planet
that may hold more interest for them personally.  That's not an answer
either, but it does point out the Sisyphean scale of finding One True
Answer to your repeated question.

Your question regarding legal council suggests that the author of ODbL
is the only lawyer that OSMF board have relied upon for advice
regarding ODbL and the license change process.  This is incorrect.

So what you see as "the biggest conflict of interest in the project"
does not exist.

As a brief history of OSMF and lawyers, OSMF have had two different
firms agree to provide legal advice for OSMF.  The second still serve
OSMF after taking over when the first firm was unable to respond in a
timely matter.  I thank both firms for their interest in OpenStreetmap
and their support of the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

The OpenStreetMap community as a whole, not just the OSMF membership,
were invited to contribute to the drafts, release candidates and final
version of the ODbL.  The Contributor Terms were written by OSMF
council at another law firm, not by the ODbL author.  Other lawyers in
several jurisdictions, from additional firms, have offered opinions at
various times on various matters.

You ask when the tools will be ready to analyse the impact of
licensing questions.  Largely the answer is the same as for questions
about any software tool in any open project; they'll be ready when
they are ready.  As an alternative answer they will be ready when you
write them.  But flip answers are not really my style, so forgive my
brief non-answer.  During the LWG meeting this week, one participant
discussed the tool they were creating.  So some work on these
visualization tools is proceeding.

Also proceeding is the discussion of exactly what edits should be
treated in what way during the license change[1].  So if you care one
way or the other if a spell-check 'bot that changes tag spelling
should be considered for reversion if the owner chooses not to accept
ODbL/CT, you should participate in that discussion.  Is a simple
import of data published elsewhere a contribution that earns the
possibility of reversion or is it purely mechanical?

On the other hand, we're also answering questions and revising text
for additional clarity, and checking revisions with lawyers.  So
things will keep taking time.


[1] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/dev/2010-August/020124.html



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