[OSM-legal-talk] License question, user clicking on map

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 27.02.2013 21:24, Marc Regan wrote:
> +1.  If you want to do anything with OSM data besides make map tiles,
> the cloud of uncertainty around what you can and can't do with the data
> is pretty terrifying.

Just to make this one point clear:

What you *can* do with the data is pretty clear and pretty easy.

Some use cases run into trouble specifically because an essential part 
of the use case is that third parties *cannot* do something.

OSM are not the ones that prohibit certain uses; it is those who want to 
prohibit certain uses that (sometimes) have a problem with OSM.

> The share-alike clause makes the barrier to using OSM data very high.

It is essentially a question of business models. It is true that it is 
sometimes difficult to marry share-alike data with "all our data belong 
to us" business models.

We've had these discussions a lot in the run-up to the license change; 
we had people to whom even the lighter rules on produced works that the 
ODbL brought were an unacceptable weakening of share-alike.

I think that the OSM community is already very open towards commercial 
use; even in CC-BY-SA times, a large majority explicitly approved of 
commercial use of our data which is not something you can take for 
granted in a volunteer project, and ODbL has made things easier at least 
for those use cases where non-database works are considered.

Before we complain and ask for more and more concessions from the OSM 
community in order to build more and more commercial products with OSM 
instead of proprietary geodata, we should think about what we already 
have - it is a lot, and represents a huge value.

Personally while I'd be happy with a PD license, I don't think that the 
concept "if you want to build proprietary solutions and make $$$ from 
the fact that they're proprietary then you have to pay someone $$$ to 
buy proprietary geodata" is too outrageous.

As I said in my opening paragraph, the share-alike license never 
prohibits you from doing something with the data; it just prohibits you 
from prohibiting stuff!

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"