[OSM-legal-talk] Changeset Comments Copyright

[Mateusz Konieczny]

Sep 22, 2020, 23:43 by gitne at gmx.de:

> Hello OSMF Legal Team,
>
> due to a quite troubling revelation by @SomeoneElse that changeset comments are
> automatically republished by the third party private company Slack, I would
> appreciate if you could share your legal assessment of this situation. More
> specifically, what is the copyright status of changeset comments and which OSMF
> document or agreement covers changeset comments?
>
> As far as I can tell no document covers changeset comments either explicitly nor
> implicitly. The Contributor Terms state that “…contributing data and/or any
> other content (collectively, “Contents”) to the geo-database of the
> OpenStreetMap project (the “Project”)” is explicitly limited to contributions to
> the geo-database (map database). As far as I can tell changeset comments are not
> part of the OSM's geo-database.
>
As far as I can tell changeset comments are part of the OSM's geo-database.

"Thank you for your interest in contributing data and/or any other content
(collectively, “Contents”) to the geo-database of the OpenStreetMap project (the “Project”)"

And yes, "any other content" clearly includes changeset description, notes,
note comments, changeset comments and so on.

Though I am unsure about status of anonymous notes, formerly possible
anonymous note comments and about user diary entries.

note: I am not a lawyer
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