[OSM-talk] open data

[rob at robmyers.org]

Quoting Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se>:

> 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.

There was an example on Lessig's blog recently where someone used a
NonCommercial CC image commercially and paid for doing so when this was 
brought
to their attention:

http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/003533.shtml

And the CC licenses were upheld in the Dutch courts in similar circumstances:

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/5823

> 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.

The licenses are enforcable and have been enforced. But this depends on the
licensed work being copyrightable /broken-record.

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

If you're in the Netherlands or it's Auto Week magazine, very good. ;-)
Elsewhere, about as good as enforcing the GPL, which is also very good.

- Rob.