[Openstreetmap] Re: OSM License and debian

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

[Alex Willmer]
> 2. Viral (ie GPL/Sharealike)

Your use of 'viral' here indicate a certain bias.

The work viral indicate the danger of becoming "infected" without a
conscious choice.  This is not the case neither for GPL nor CC
Sharealike.  One will need to actively use code/data to be affected by
the license of the code/data, and there is nothing accidental about
it.  It is not like you sit next to some "viral source of
information", and suddenly you are infected.  You have to decide to
use it or not before the license affect you.  And this is the case for
all copyright-able material, and nothing special about GPL or CC
Sharealike.  You will be affected by the license of all the stuff you
decide to copy from external sources.