[Openstreetmap] OSM License and debian

[Alex Willmer]

frank wrote:

>i met some debian people yesterday and we talked about osm,
>the licence question etc.
>
>just a summary
>- there is a demand for free map data (as we already know)
>- CC licenced data won't go to debian main/contrib but to non-free
>- got the tip to contact the DebianGis project
>
>frank
>  
>
I really think we need to make the decision on licensing for 
openstreetmap data. I believe the following summarizes the 2 choices:

1. Creative Commons, Software or bespoke license
    - CC is not approved by Debian for inclusion in Main
    - Software licenses are not directly applicable to data
    - Bespoke licensing means YAL, problems of acceptance and additional 
effort
    - Geodata has it's own quirks that may necessitate special treatment

2. Viral (ie GPL/Sharealike) or attribution (ie BSD/CC BY) or dual licensing
    - Viral licensing ensures everyone 'gives back'
    - Viral licensing strongly protects against hijacking of the project
    - Viral licensing will reduce the number of people willing to share 
their data
    - Viral licensing may discourage commercial use of OSM data
    - Attribution licensing opens OSM data to the widest audience
    - Attribution licensing has greater scope for take-without-give 
'theft' of  OSM data
    - Attribution licensing may reduce the number of people willing to 
contribute data
    - Dual licensing complicates keeping track of what rights apply to 
which data
    - Dual licensing may appease proponents of Viral and Attribution 
licensing
    - If the project decides against dual licensing, individuals may 
still contribute their own data under multiple licenses

Would voting be a suitable method of deciding this?
Which of the above does everyone favour right now?
Are CC amending their licenses to account for DFSGs opinions, will DFSG 
change their mind?

Personally, I'd be content with Software/Attribution licensing and would 
choose (a possibly customised) BSD License.

By customised, I mean could we consider vector form to be our geodata 
'source code' and rendered bitmaps to be our 'binary form'. IANAL and 
this assumes CC doesn't become DFSG approved.


Regards

Alex