[OSM-talk] open data

[Lars Aronsson]

Richard Fairhurst wrote:

> On 21 Sep 2006, at 22:48, Lars Aronsson wrote:
> > This is where you're mistaken.  If OSM wasn't here to promote
> > copyleft, all data would have been given to the public domain.
> 
> As ever, Lars, I like your idealism, but I don't think that's supported 
> by history.

It's not my idealism, it's Steve's.  He set up OSM to use CC-SA-BY 
(or something to that effect) long before I entered this project. 
Many others, including Etienne and myself, have been far more open 
towards using the public domain.  Some hard core copyleftists (Imi 
comes to mind) have helped Steve to hold on to the original 
licensing.  And I still don't see how this is going to change. The 
result is that OSM uses and thus promotes copyleft, online and in 
print.  You can like that or not, but it is a fact.

> Of course, if OSM really is here to promote copyleft, you should 
> be lobbying for a change in the foundation's objectives.

Again, I'm not the driving force here. But in addition to that, 
I'm not a political person who cares about charters and statements 
for their own sake.  Instead I'm a technical person who believes 
in running code.  In all discussions about licensing I have been 
asking for case law (which is the legal equivalent of running 
code) that can indicate the real life difference between various 
licensing options.  I know the GPL has been used against companies 
in some interesting cases (Netgear, TomTom), but I don't know of 
any where GFDL or CC licensing for contents has mattered.

The brochure examples you presented in March, 
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2006-March/002758.html 
are very interesting.  If I got that brochure in my hand, I'd like 
to know if I could reuse the map (and text and photos) in my own 
brochure, who has the copyright and under what terms I could use 
it.  Not everybody would ask these questions, but I would.  And if 
I created that map, text or photos, I'd like to help the kind of 
people who ask such questions (the creative elite) rather than all 
the rest (the masses, the consumers).  It would seem this 
reasoning should turn me into a copyleftist.  But before that I'd 
like to know if I have any realistic chance of enforcing any 
copyleft license.  If not, I could just as well let go and release 
my creations in the public domain.

Before my 15 month presence in OpenStreetMap, I have a 13 year 
background as founder of runeberg.org where I scan and coordinate 
the scanning of old books.  These belong in the public domain, and 
there is no legal ground for claiming copyright to the scans.  If 
anybody prints the scans and sells them, I cannot force them to 
tell the buyer that the works are out-of-copyright.  So even if 
I'd like everybody to know this, I cannot use copyleft for that.

OpenStreetMap is a very similar case.  If anybody prints and sells 
our maps, what are our chances to enforce any copyleft license?


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se