[Osmf-talk] Moving the OSMF to the EU?
Justin Tracey
j3tracey at gmail.com
Thu Jul 1 01:43:25 UTC 2021
My understanding is there are only three legal jurisdictions in which
sui generis database rights (such as those granted/protected in the
ODbL) are explicitly legally protected: the UK, the EU, and Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_right
- Justin
On 2021-06-30 9:31 p.m., Graeme Fitzpatrick wrote:
> I've come very late to this discussion, so apologies for asking what may
> (& probably is!) a very stupid question.
>
> Is the EU the only place that OSMF could move to?
>
> If so, why?
>
> When I went back through some earlier comments, I noticed one that
> suggested Canada.
>
> I could say the same thing - how about Australia? We speak English & all
> laws / contracts are written in English, you can receive charitable
> donations, our Association structure is reasonably similar to the
> English. We've just gone through the process of setting up an Oceania
> Chapter, so I'm assuming that the question of International transactions
> has been investigated & addressed with no major roadblocks?
>
> I keep seeing comments (& complaints) on this & other topics that OSM /
> OSMF is too Western Eu / UK / US centric - maybe help break that by
> moving away completely! :-)
>
> Thanks
>
> Graeme
>
>
> On Thu, 1 Jul 2021 at 03:42, Philippe Verdy <verdyp at gmail.com
> <mailto:verdyp at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I do agree. After all this is what all major international
> organizations are doing: e.g. Microsoft or Google with their
> subsidiary in Ireland without having their "directors" (of the main
> organization) to be in Ireland.
> An I really doubt that language support is an issue (even in France:
> look at Strasbourg for major institutions of the EU and of the
> Council of Europe; only companies located in France have to provide
> some essential info in French for French residents; and there are
> lot of exceptions for NGOs, like the Red Cross).
>
> Interesting places to look at are then where EU, CoE, or UN
> institutions are located: these places are multilingual with
> excellent support for English (but not only! And it would be very
> interesting to be in these places that support MORE languages for a
> larger part of the world, including outside Europe): Haaguen/La Haye
> (or Amsterdam for their large internet centers), Brussels/Bruxelles,
> Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Geneva... and even Paris (seat of
> several EU and UN agencies as well). All these places have
> excellent/fast transportation with UK (notably Brussels and Paris,
> by plane or high speed train, and lot of transportation services wit
> hthe rest of the world, huge competition/low prices, high
> availability). All these places have very favorable conditions for
> NGOs (small like OSM, or large like the Red Cross), and lot of
> facilities to manage international financial transfers and assets.
>
> You should not use "English" as a limiting factor, after all once
> you have eliminated UK and Ireland, you'll find NO other country in
> the EU having universal support of English for everything and
> everyone. But places that are already highly multilingual and where
> legal documents written in English are recognized exists EVERYWHERE
> in the EU (and the EU itself makes lot of efforts to support these
> English documents as valid, without forcing them to be translated;
> judges are also treating lot of affairs in English, even if by law
> they will be forced to create a legal translation in their national
> official language(s). If you look at the two most important
> languages of EU, it has NEVER been English, but French (in FR, BE,
> AD, MC, LU, parts of ES, IT, and DE) and German (in DE, AT, CH),
> followed by Italian (in IT, part of DE, LI, and CH) or Dutch (in BL
> and BE).
>
> An international organisation like OSM whose goal is to support the
> world would not focus on using English exclusively for everything
> (and after all that's another reason why chapters were created, and
> they should have a larger role, all ofd them being able to offer
> services in English when it's really required). So making some
> efforts at OSM to be a bit more multilingual will be
> benificial (including for the rest of the world: think about Russia,
> China, India, South Africa, Israel, Arabic countries, South America
> supporting Spanish and Portuguese, or Indonesia: these are very
> populated areas of the world with lot of demand and activities for OSM).
>
> Note that the EU is a bit limitative territory, where as single
> market rules extend a bit more (at least to the EEA and Switzerland
> as well even if it's not part of EU and EEA, but partitipates in
> almost all activities and cooperates with lot of countries around
> the world, via UN agencies).
>
> For me the best candidate place is Brussels (and it is already
> multingual, having to support French, Dutch and German, plus all
> official languages of the EU for all works and lobbying with EU
> institutions).
>
>
> Le mer. 30 juin 2021 à 15:57, Lorenzo Losa <lorenzo.losa at email.it
> <mailto:lorenzo.losa at email.it>> a écrit :
>
> On sab, 2021-06-19 at 19:10 +0200, Guillaume Rischard wrote:
> > The OSMF board is considering relocating the OSMF to the EU. We
> > haven’t taken our decision yet, and would like to first
> consult its
> > membership for feedback, advice and whether we’ve missed
> anything.
>
> A few years ago there was a search for a country for
> incorporating an
> international organization in Wikimedia; the project failed, but you
> can find the discussions here, in case there is something useful:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Resolutions/2012_WCA_place_of_registration
> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Chapters_Association/Resolutions/2012_WCA_place_of_registration>
>
> > • Move the whole foundation? A hybrid approach –
> keeping the
> > “main” OSMF in the UK and having a sister OSMF in the EU – might
> > reduce the effort or even work better.
>
> You could also work together with a chapter, if it makes sense.
> I can
> say that the Italian chapter would be happy to help.
>
> Lorenzo
>
>
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