[Local-chapters] Actions concerning the license

[Henk Hoff]

Just a little background on the reason for this in the Chapters
requirements.

The OSMF is the official publisher of the database (= licensor of database).
One of the tasks of the Foundation is to check whether organizations that
use the data are doing so in compliance with the license.
Now, when a chapter (as a representative of the OSMF) is giving wrong
advice/instructions concerning the license, the OSMF may have a weak case if
they see that someone is not using the data in compliance with the license.
Because the counterpart could argue "OpenStreetMap [whatever] told me it was
ok to do so".

It's not that a chapter may not say anything about the license, but it needs
to check whether the info they are giving is correct.

And hey, if you really want to get in all the legal issues: join the License
Working Group! (legal at osmfoundation.org)

Cheers,
Henk


2010/3/21 Serge Wroclawski <emacsen at gmail.com>

> I wanted to give a little time in between issues to discuss...
>
> The other issue that came up in the meeting, for the US group, was
> this sentence:
>
> "All actions concerning the license must be approved by the Foundation."
>
> Our understanding of this was was a way of saying "The OSMF will
> direct the license of the OSM dataset", which would mean things like
> changing the license from CCBYSA to ODbL, updating the ODbL, etc.
>
> That makes good sense, but the wording seemed a vague.
>
> At the meeting, Henk explained that it wasn't just the license, but
> any action around the license. He gave the example of a chapter
> creating a document which summarized the OSM license and specified
> requirements for import. Coincidentally I'd made such a document a few
> weeks earlier and discussed it on the osm-professional list.
>
> It summarizes the requirements for an organization to submit data into
> OSM according to the license (either CCBYSA or OBbL).
>
> From the phone conference, it would appear that the OSMF would want
> final approval of any such document.
>
> I understand the desire of the OSMF to control the license, but I
> don't see why the OSMF would be in control of documents around the
> license (unless they were patently false, for example).
>
> The Chapters are going to be doing outreach and part of that outreach
> will need to cover the license, especially if we're talking to
> organizations. Requiring prior approval for all documents regarding
> the license seems like an immense amount of work on the part of the
> OSMF, and something which could greatly hinder the Chapters.
>
>
> With this and the other concern I brought up in the other thread, I'd
> like to strongly suggest the wording of the license section be
> something more like:
>
>
> Data license
>
> The OpenStreetMap Foundation is the publisher of the OpenStreetMap
> database and has therefore the primary responsibility over the
> dataset. Chapters should be committed to keeping the OpenStreetMap
> dataset unified and under the primary responsibility of the OSMF and
> will retain primary leadership over the data and its license.
>
>
>
> - Serge
>
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> Local-chapters at openstreetmap.org
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>
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