[Talk-bo] Upcoming redaction of GADM-sourced admin boundaries in Bolivia

[Paul Norman]

Hello,

I am writing to the Bolivian community in my role as a member of the OSMF 
Data Working Group. One of our jobs is handling copyright violations in 
OpenStreetMap. 

A significant number of the admin boundaries in Bolivia are sourced from 
GADM. GADM is not available under an open license and can be used for 
non-commercial use only which is not compatible with OpenStreetMap's 
ODbL license, or any open license for that matter. 

Unfortunately, this means that those boundaries will have to be removed 
through a process known as redaction. This process is probably going to 
be quite invasive to the borders and not impact non-borders. It might 
impact some rivers that share nodes with boundaries. 

OSM was able to obtain special permission from GADM to keep some of 
their datasets in but not Bolivia. 

It is very important that people do not re-upload data from GADM. 
Additionally, any imports would need to involve consultation with the 
imports@ mailing list where the license would be reviewed. 

Paul Norman
For the OpenStreetMap Foundation Data Working Group