[OSM-legal-talk] OdbL: Section 4.6, Does data/methods have to be released on public Produced Work?

[Lars-Daniel Weber]

Dear Kathleen,

thanks for your response.

> Even assuming the polygons are from a Derivative Database, I don't see a reason for the data to be released under
> https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Community_Guidelines/Trivial_Transformations_-_Guideline

The process doesn't seem to be trivial, since the edges of many polygons go across areas, where no OSM elements could have been used as a reference. So OSM dataset has either been changed or augmented using 3rd party reference (knowledge, imagery, data etc.) to create the product. Those changes are share-alike by ODbL.

The Derivative Database cleary has to be under OdbL. While the creation method might be trivial, the amount of data used for the creation is neither trivial in terms of investment or nor quantity: They've used millions of OSM nodes (ways, areas etc.) in Germany to create it.

> Why would the polygons, which appear to be simply algorithmically combined OSM data, be of interest?

I don't think the ODbL cares what's in interest of OSM (the "O" in ODbL is not "OSM"). This is just an additional "wish" by the OSM community. Also, the addition polgons, which I have mentioned, might be in interesting of OSM, since they might show a change in landuse, which isn't part of OSM now.

Sincerely,
Lars-Daniel