[Osmf-talk] wiki pages

[Valerio Capello]

Richard Fairhurst wrote on 06/12/2009 1:23:
> Valerio Capello wrote:
>> Now, please forgive me if I'm being naif, but since OSM is planning to
>> move to ODbL because CC-by-sa is unenforceable, which basically means
>> current OSM data can be used by anyone without restrictions, why can't
>> CC-by-sa licensed data simply be copied by OSM itself and relicensed?
> 
> Oh, in some jurisdictions it could. But it'd be a big breach of trust
> with the community. OSMF is doing the right thing by asking everyone,
> even if it might regret its honesty sometimes. :)

My two cents:

I'm all for acting moral and respecting people rights and wills, but if
this is the case, it seems to me more a case of politeness gone mad.

People released their data under a CC-by-sa license because they wanted
to be credited and reuse contributions added by other persons.
If the LWG stated that CC-by-sa doesn't apply (and this is confirmed by
CC itself), it makes no sense at all to ask people if they want to keep
neither the whole project nor the data they provided under such license.
Rather, the whole database should be moved under the new license, which
basically keeps the "by-sa" everyone agreed upon.

I think that most people who contributed to OSM don't mind if the
license changes as long the "by-sa" principle is kept. Data loss is more
likely to happen because people fail to reply to the poll (outdated
e-mail address, broken PC, long vacation, illness, death...).

If you really think a poll is necessary, then it probably should be an
opt-out poll. Something like:

For [THIS AND THAT] on [DATE] we are moving all the OSM database under a
new license.
Our jurisdiction (UK) allows us to reuse your data without asking, but
since we are nice people, we feel you can refuse the new license (even
though it protects data the way the old one was supposed to do) if you want.
What do you want to do:
- Go on, move my data under the new license
- I consider my data as Public Domain, so do whatever you want
- I don't like the new license, delete my data

Valerio