[OSM-legal-talk] Exception in Open Data License/Community Guidelines for temporary file

[Jonathan Harley]

On 29/06/11 19:56, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> Hi,
>
> James Livingston wrote:
>>> If I use software that builds an in-memory data structure which you
>>> believe to be a database in order to make a produced work, how
>>> would you suggest that I fulfil my obligation to make such derived
>>> database available on request?
>>
>> I have absolutely no idea. It's one of the many things I don't know
>> about how the produced works part of the ODbL will work in practice.
>
> Thinking about this more, the problem would only occur if you have a 
> black-box software wich might or might not create a database 
> internally, and the thing that falls out of the black box is a 
> produced work that you will publicly use.
>
> Because then, and only then, will you have to share the derived 
> database upon which the produced work is based.
>
> If, on the other hand, out of the black box comes a derived database, 
> then you can simply share *that* database and nobody cares what 
> happened in the black box, because you only have to share the last in 
> a chain of derived databases that leads to a produced work, right?

I think that's right - that's the only one which you're publicly using.

Really I'm at a loss to see the point of the share-alike clause (4.4). I 
can't think of a use-case for OSM where processing the database doesn't 
reduce the amount of information. When you want to render geodata, it 
typically involves discarding most of the metadata, getting rid of 
points from ways, and transforming lat/long to cartesian co-ordinates in 
a projection. The resulting database is always going to have a lot less 
information than the original, and be difficult or impossible to 
translate back into OSM (without the OSM IDs or original lat/long). So 
what's the point of the huge burden of being required to make it 
available on request? Who benefits?

Jonathan.

-- 
Jonathan Harley    :     Managing Director     :     SpiffyMap Ltd

Email: md at spiffymap.com   Phone: 0845 313 8457   www.spiffymap.com
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