[OSM-legal-talk] CTs, procedure to change of the license

[Martin Koppenhoefer]

2012/10/25 Pavel Pisa <ppisa4lists at pikron.com>:
> I would personally vote for two months. I know people who go
> for expeditions for long time and I think that their contributions
> can be of high value and should not lost right to vote because they
> are not connected to the Net every day.


I see this similar, but please keep in mind that it is really "only"
about voting, not about relicensing the data you contributed (like it
was during the recent license change) because now the OSMF has the
right to relicense all data (that is compatible with the new
license*1) if 2/3 of all active contributors agree.


> The minimal period for change discussion should be defined as well.


I am not so sure that this is really important to be explicitly
defined, in the end what is important are the arguments and the
consense achieved, which is not linked to any minimum time requirement
IMHO. I believe in order to get the required 2/3 majority there will
automatically have to be an intensive discussion.


> The open topic is who controls the Contributions Terms changes.
> It is OSMF or have other OSM contributors right to control future
> of their work and the project? I would prefer if even Contributions
> Terms changes require at least some community approval.


I have had a look at the current CTs, but I could not find the version
which I accepted (if I recall right there was a change in the wording
of the CTs during the license change?). It is not specified how they
can be changed, so at the moment it looks as if you are bound to the
version of CT you agree, and if you agree to a newer version, the
older one is superseded. The CT are an individual contract between you
and the OSMF, so if they change they must be accepted by every
contributor to be valid for him.

Three things I think could be done for more transparency:
1. currently the user page only says something like: "Contributor
terms: Accepted about 2 years ago", but IMHO a precise date would be
better
2. The CTs could be linked from here as well:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright
3. Older versions of the CTs could be easier retrievable, at least
those which are binding to a subset of users

Or is there a missunderstanding on my part?

cheers,
Martin

*1 for example if you import now data that is cc-by or similar and the
community decides to publish furtheron as PD this data would have to
be removed.