[Osmf-talk] Can we untick the Public domain checkbox from our initial choice done during OSM sign up?

Simon Poole simon at poole.ch
Mon Oct 7 11:33:00 UTC 2019


One thing that hasn't been pointed out in this discussion is that the
status of the PD flag is not actually available to anybody except the
OSMF and the account holder in question.

So in reality no third party could have based their processing of OSM
data on the status of the flag and resetting it would have no practical
effect at all.

Am 01.10.2019 um 10:28 schrieb severin.menard via osmf-talk:
> Hi,
>
> As I guess many people signing up in OSM and not necessarily very
> aware at that time about data licenses, I did not pay much attention
> to the check-box below the contributor agreement asking if I would
> consider my contributions as part of public domain. And it seems I
> ticked it. Now I am strongly convinced of the benefits of both
> attribution and share-alike requirements and obviously regret that choice.
>
> My question is: can I now edit this option of the contributor
> agreement and untick this checkbox, considering it would be totally
> harmless for OSM as PD not being the current license for OSM? Or
> everyone in my case unfortunately needs to create a new OSM account?
>
> This apart, I think this checkbox should not be implemented at all in
> the contributor agreement when signing up. Why specifically for PD? If
> ever arises a project of switching from ODbL to PD, I think it should
> be handled at least the way it was done for CC-BY-SA to ODbL in 2012,
> with a specific choice for that change with detailed information for
> the contributors, moreover considering it would be a much, much more
> drastic switch.
>
> I also think that
> https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence_and_Legal_FAQ/Why_would_I_want_my_contributions_to_be_public_domain
> should also have a Cons section after the Pros.

If the whole thing would have been thought through correctly there would
have been a legal text there instead of pieced together stuff that
doesn't really make any sense. But in any case changing the text without
a reset of the whole thing would be a very bad idea and would just add
to the confusion.

Simon


>
> Sincerely,
>
> Severin
>
>
>
>
>
>
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