[OSM-legal-talk] A license bot that has produced too many errors

[FK270673 at fantasymail.de]

The detrimental license bot now has reached Germany and promptly left a lot of errors here.

Let's just look at one city, Göttingen in Northern Germany, where I have contacted some undecided users, so I have some knowledge about pre-bot history. 

There are so many errors with severe legal implications, so I would like to publish them on the legal-talk list. Their manipulated history is such a heavy infringement of Creative Commons license that even an agreer could easily sue the OSMF if he was willing to waste time and money on a senseless trial. Let me show the examples:

- agreeing mapper's node disappeared
http://osm.mapki.com/history/node.php?id=60580009

Version 3 of this node (51.5400973, 9.9564636) was last edited by agreeing user Sasude. By removing this precisely located node, an intersection of four streets was destroyed.

- street has disappeared completely

The southern part of Dahlmannstraße with bus route No. 6 has disappeared completely though it was last edited by agreers.

- intersections were cut off
- ODbL history ignores agreeing users
http://osm.mapki.com/history/way.php?id=8091768

Both intersections were cut off though these nodes were last edited by an agreer.
Undediced mapper Hotte Degoe has created an empty line without any tags. All tags were added by agreeing users, all points have been moved by agreeing users as well.
Only v1 should be hidden, all other versions by agreeing mappers should be visible.

- decliner included in ODbL history
http://osm.mapki.com/history/way.php?id=60922724

Lobelt has declined the new contributor terms so far mainly for political reasons, but he still appears in the "clean" ODbL history because he has removed a senseless tag. Removing a tag does not constitute a copyright, but mentioning him in the history is an infringement of moral rights.
v2 should be hidden.

- OSMF Redaction Account claims to be the only author
http://osm.mapki.com/history/way.php?id=8573909

Since the OSMF Redaction Account did not create any way, he cannot pretend to be the author of any way. This pretense is illegal according to Creative Commons and rude though legal according to new ODbL license.
At least some human users should appear in the history.

- ODbL history ignores too many agreeing users (2nd example)
http://osm.mapki.com/history/way.php?id=8094092
Undediced mapper Hotte Degoe has created an empty line without any tags. All tags were added by agreeing users, all points have been moved by agreeing users as well.
Only v1 should be hidden, all other versions by agreeing mappers should be visible.

These seven examples are quite simple cases without any complications. I am sure that some of you will be able to find many more examples where the bot has made severe errors.

Finally, let me give two suggestions for a clean and transparent transition:

- OSMI should not ignore bot deletions
Streets destroyed by the bot (e.g. Dahlmannstraße in Göttingen) disappear on OSMI, so there is no chance to check what the bot has destroyed, and why he did so. Human users usually deliberate before they delete an object, the bot did not deliberate at all. Please allow local users to check where the bot has completely destroyed a street.

- Please make bot deletions transparent
For a transitional period of several weeks, "invisible" versions of history should be visible with RED letters so that everybody can check whether the bot has hidden too much information. Hiding versions may be considered as breech of Creative Commons license, displaying them in RED letters until the final cut is definitely legal.

As there are a lot of errors in the bot-generated history, it will still take some weeks or months until a clean license change can happen.

2008-2010
It took two years to write the license
2010-2012
It took two years to convince the community
2012-2014
It may take up to two years to achieve a clear license change

Yours, with best regards
OSM user #42429