[Osmf-talk] Blanket copyright licence in Contributor Terms

[Matt Amos]

Frederik Ramm wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Gervase Markham wrote:
>> "You hereby grant to OSMF and any party that receives Your Contents a 
>> worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable license 
>> to do any act that is restricted by copyright over anything within the 
>> Contents, whether in the original medium or any other."
>>
>> Does "any party that receives your Contents" mean "anyone who downloads 
>> planet.osm"? That seems like the obvious on-the-face-of-it meaning. If 
>> not, why doesn't it mean that? If it does mean that, why does this 
>> clause not mean that the data is effectively PD?
> 
> But the party would "receive the contents" only through OSMF, and OSMF 
> will slap on the ODbL at that time, isn't that so? And this paragraph 
> only serves to say that you will not claim any rights over and above 
> what OSMF slaps on through the ODbL?

and also that the Contents are effectively PD, but anyone downloading 
planet.osm is effectively downloading a database. so each individual 
Content item has a very liberal license, but when used in Substantial 
amounts is governed by the ODbL.

cheers,

matt