[OSM-talk] Data Licencing

[Dan Karran]

On 5/4/06, Ian Davis <iand at internetalchemy.org> wrote:

> I've looked into this a little more and it's become evident that the CC
> licences aren't designed for data, only for creative works, since facts
> can't be copyrighted. However, many countries offer an alternative right
>   which in the UK is called database right[2]. This offers protection
> over the data collection as a whole for a number of years, typically 15.
>
> I have been working on a licence that uses database right to preserve
> freedom of access to data. It's currently called the Talis Community
> Licence and it offers the following rights:
>
>   * the freedom to use the data for any purpose
>   * the freedom to modify and mix the data
>   * the freedom to redistribute copies
>
> but like the GPL it requires that the copies and derived works are
> offered under the same licence. This is designed to prevent any attempt
> to deny those freedoms to others. The full text is here:
> http://www.talis.com/tdn/tcl

Sounds interesting, hopefully I'll get a proper chance to look over it later.

> I've been looking over the licencing for OSM and I think you're not
> covered. The CC licence can't apply since there was no creative effort
> involved in the data collection. This means that the unscrupulous out
> there can take the OSM data and repackage it however they like,
> including restricting access to it. In the decades that it's going to
> take to build an equivilent to navteq I think it's going to be
> increasingly important to preserve free access to the data despite any
> disasters that may happen along the way.

On the contrary, I'd say there is creative effort in the project. The
facts are the GPS traces that are collected whilst the creative effort
is in the interpretation of those by the people drawing nodes,
segments and ways on top of that data. It's the information created on
top of the GPS tracks that I'd say is most important to the project,
the GPS track data is just a means of helping create the information.



Dan

--
Dan Karran
dan at karran.net
www.dankarran.com