[talk-au] NearMap Community Licence and OSM Contributor Terms

[David Groom]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ben Last" <ben.last at nearmap.com>
To: "OpenStreetMap Learned Discussions" <talk at openstreetmap.org>; "OSM 
Australian Talk List" <talk-au at openstreetmap.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 9:09 AM
Subject: [talk-au] NearMap Community Licence and OSM Contributor Terms


> Hi all
>
> As you may have noticed, if you follow the mailing lists, there's been a
> certain amount of discussion about using NearMap aerial imagery (which we
> call PhotoMaps) as a source for generating OSM data, in the light of the
> current Contributor Terms (CTs, as currently shown at
> http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/Contributor_Terms).  We've been
> looking at the CTs (or rather, our lawyers have), and as a result of this,
> we need to make a couple of points clear.
>
> We should emphasise first that *you still have the same rights to use
> NearMap images that you always
> had<http://www.nearmap.com/products/community-licence>
> *; you can use them to derive information that you own and may distribute
> under a CC-BY-SA licence.  We've also been looking at the ODbL in detail
> and, pending a final word from the lawyers, we would be able to allow
> derived works from our PhotoMaps to be distributed under ODbL/DbCL.  We'd
> also be prepared to make this explicit on our site, to avoid any issues 
> with
> explicit permissions (see para 1 of the CTs).
>
> However, there are a couple of problems with the CTs.
>
> First: paragraph 2 of the CTs requires that an OSM user grants the OSMF a
> very wide ranging licence ("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. These rights explicitly include commercial use, and do not exclude
> any field of endeavour").  We can't grant a licence to derive data from 
> our
> PhotoMaps that would allow the derived work to be submitted to OSM under
> that clause; it introduces yet another licence (above and beyond CC-BY-SA
> and ODbL/DbCL).
>
> Second: paragraph 3 of the CTs allows the licence to be changed to 
> "another
> free or open licence", which isn't further defined.  We can't grant a
> licence to derive data from our PhotoMaps that would allow the derived 
> work
> to be submitted to OSM under that clause, since that other licence might 
> not
> be CC-BY-SA or ODbL/DbCL.
>
> To summarise: under the terms of our Community licence (
> http://www.nearmap.com/products/community-licence) you can't use our
> PhotoMaps to derive data in a way that allows you to license that data 
> under
> the current Contributor Terms.  Data already derived from our PhotoMaps
> remains under CC-BY-SA, which again means that it can't be licensed under
> the CTs.
>
> Because of this, we're making the following changes to our website:
>
>   - Changing the wording of the page that explains the Community licence 
> so
>   that it says "you may Use the Licensed PhotoMaps or Modified PhotoMaps 
> to
>   obtain information which you can then use, under the Creative Commons
>   Attribution Share Alike
> (CC-BY-SA)<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/> licence,
>   to populate or update community street mapping projects" rather than
>   referencing OpenStreetMap directly.
>   - Removing the Edit button that links directly to OpenStreetmap (opens
>   Potlatch with NearMap images).
>
> I have to say that we're doing this very reluctantly; we're big supporters
> of OSM (many of us here are active members) and we're still committed to
> doing whatever we can to support it directly.  We've put a lot of effort
> (actually, a very large amount of development time and money) into 
> building
> parts of our system to support OSM, and that's now having to be modified 
> or
> put on hold.  We're going to continue to talk to the Licence Working Group
> about this, and to try and find a way around the issues we have.  Our
> concerns aren't based on any philosophical objections, just on
> incompatibilities between our use of a share-alike licence and the current
> CTs.  We very much hope that there'll be a resolution that will allow us 
> to
> get back to actively and positively encouraging mappers and others to use
> our PhotoMaps to enhance and build OpenStreetMap.
>
> Finally, as ever, I want to make it clear that it's not our place as a
> company to try and direct or influence the direction of OSM.  That's for 
> the
> community and OSMF to debate and decide.
>
> Regards
> Ben
>

Ben
Thank you for the time, and presumably money, that NearMap have expended 
investigating this issue.

It is a disappointing, but totally understandable decision.

Lets hope that OSM find a way to resolve it so that Near Map imagery can 
continue to be used in the future

David

> --
> Ben Last
> Development Manager (HyperWeb)
> NearMap Pty Ltd
>


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