[OSM-legal-talk] license test

[Steve Coast]

A constructive way forward may be to set out some tests that should be met for any license change for any issue. Maybe this exists already and I missed it. I’d suggest three tests below, but maybe someone here has better ones. I’m not sure *who* should judge this. Maybe a vote of some kind.

SPIRIT - Does the suggested change maintain the spirit of the license?

	(Doesn’t require much elaboration I think, maybe I’m wrong)

HARM - Does the suggested change not harm the community or data?

	(This is the most squirrely, maybe it can be nailed down. I took it from Lawrence Lessig’s supreme court copyright case where the judges asked him to show the actual harm the DMCA (would have) caused.)

EFFORT - Does the suggested change merit the effort required?

	(The last license change was a monumental effort)

Perhaps we could replace the HARM test with the MANY test:

MANY - Does the suggested change help the many or the few?

Best

Steve Coast http://stevecoast.com/ <http://stevecoast.com/> +14087310937
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