[OSM-legal-talk] data derived from UK Ordnace Survey

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 06/16/11 12:31, Dermot McNally wrote:
>> Does that not effectively rule out any future relicensing because the burden
>> of checking existing data is just too high? I mean, how would one even
>> *begin* to perform such a check, given that nobody is actually obliged to
>> tell us what license restriction his externally-sourced data might be under?
>
> Not quite, based on what Richard is saying. It would allow future
> relicensing but only if the new licence remained compatible with the
> terms seen to be required by the OS (currently attribution, if I've
> understood correctly).

Almost ;) replace "terms seen to be required by the OS" with "sum of 
terms seen to be required by anyone whose data we are basing our 
contributions on".

And while it is not certain that this sum of terms is equal to ODbL, it 
might be; we don't really have a way to know since we do not force or 
even expect our users to *tell* us what terms their contributions come 
under, except that they are somehow compatible with our current licensing.

So after a few years we might have data in our database that was given 
to someone with the explicit restriction that it may only ever be 
distributed under OdbL. Sufficient for the person to contribute the data 
to OSM under the current CT. A future license change would then need a 
crystal ball to single out that data set (the contributor might not even 
be available for communication any longer) and determine that it has to 
be removed.

This situation could be made a little less of a problem by requesting 
that anyone who contributes data that is not available for arbitrary 
relicensing under the CT (i.e. any free and open license etc.etc.) 
should flag such data in a well-defined way. Then, in a future 
relicensing process we could assume that any data not flagged can be 
relicensed at will, and only data that is flagged needs to be more 
closely investigated.

It is too late to upgrade the CT with such a requirement, but we could 
still set up a community norm to that effect.

Bye
Frederik