[Osmf-talk] my views on the ODbL

[Elizabeth Dodd]

On Sun, 6 Dec 2009, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> Liz,
>
> Elizabeth Dodd wrote:
> > From an Australian point of view, the government data we have imported is
> > CC- by-SA. We have no leverage to try to alter this. Getting the data at
> > was a major concession.
>
> As far as I understand, the Licensing Working Group has it on their
> agenda to single out the largest "data donors" and talk to them
> one-on-one, or find people in the relevant countries who can be trusted
> with that. Are you positive that your government cannot be convinced?

It's not the government, it's the bureaucracy. Any change takes about 5 years. 
It slower than OSMF by a factor of 2.5 to 10.
We would also rate as unimportant and go to the bottom of the pile - "they've 
got the data, what's the problem?" - will be the attitude of the bureaucracy.
Individually, they are nice people, but making a decision is not on their 
workplan, as it could result in no job.

>

snipped out, not because i didn't read it


> (The reason why we want to move away from CC-BY-SA is that it doesn't
> work for us. If there is a country where lawyers assure us that CC-BY-SA
> works for Geodata there, then the move away from CC-BY-SA may become
> less urgent.)
James' point (elsewhere 'talk-au') is that the lawyers for the Australian 
government have decided that CC-by-SA is good enough for the release of the 
Australian data - so it has been decided that it protects geo-data in 
Australia.

>
> Another possibility is moving to ODbL and leaving non-relicenced .au
> government data in a separate database from where it is only retrieved
> for rendering. If/when such data is resurveyed by OSMers, it can be
> removed from that old database.
>
> Bye
> Frederik
>
>
> [*] But who would not invest some extra work to avoid lots of blank
> spots on the map?
a rhetorical question, no doubt. 
we don't have any other way of getting some of this data - rivers 
particularly.
there is no detailed aerial imaging that's free to use.
we just don't have the manpower to cover our continent.

Liz