[Openstreetmap] The bigger picture

[SteveC]

* @ 14/02/06 01:46:39 PM lars at aronsson.se wrote:
> Tom Carden wrote:
> 
> > Could the £10 you suggest be split between OpenStreetMap and a 
> > commercial satellite/aerial photography company perhaps, with 
> > the latter providing pay-for access to imagery that would allow 
> > you to sanity-check the OSM data?
> > [...]
> > Note that I'm not talking about restricting access to the API, 
> > although that again is something that could be a pay-for service 
> > for commercial use.  Basically, so long as people are always 
> > entitled to access OSM's raw data for their own personal use,
> 
> This whole discussion is a provocation!  Unless the list owner 
> makes it clear that this line of thinking is impossible, I'm on my 

No line of thinking is unpossible, but no, OSM will never be a CDDB and
just close off access or change the license on exising data.

> way out of here.  Some people obviously want to build a new 
> Ordnance Survey, and if there is any risk that OSM is going to be 
> *their* platform, then I want to make sure that I didn't 
> contribute to their effort.

No, but we _do_ need to find a way to pay for computers. Any ideas?

> When I spent this summer, fall, and winter drawing maps for OSM it 
> was my intention that these maps should be available for all, for 
> free, for ever, for any purpose (commercial or not), under the 
> CC-SA license.  If OSM is going to become the kind of proprietary 
> map publisher that Tom suggests, it can under no circumstances 
> claim any rights to the maps I made.  You are free to charge for 
> the map data, the same way that Red Hat and SuSE charge for Linux, 
> but you are not free to restrict people to use and share the data 
> for free.  You cannot even dual license the data (the MySQL way), 
> because you don't own the copyright in the first place.

I know.

have fun,

SteveC steve at asklater.com http://www.asklater.com/steve/