[OSM-talk] License

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

    my last piece about license stuff as I'd rather spend my time  
productively instead of getting all agitated about political topics.  
Which I easily do.

Richard wrote (about the FSF thingy):
> Interesting. I think assigning sole copyright to OSM (i.e. contributor
> retains no copyright) would be a show-stopper for some people,
> including me. But looks like a worthwhile initiative for other  
> projects.

The FSF agreement is not something where the contributor retains no  
copyright. (It is impossible in many jurisdictions to give up your  
intellectual ownership of something. You can only grant others all  
sorts of rights, and that's what it is about.)

I see that there are tons of misunderstandings and half-knowledge  
concerning licensing in our special case, and I would really like to  
see a document spelling out in pllain English what you can and cannot  
do with our data as it stands. Maybe the folks over at legal-talk can  
produce something and put it up in the wiki. (Attempt at Cc without  
being a member of that list. Will probably fail.)

"Can I use OSM data to distribute it with my proprietary navigation  
system?"
"Can I put a slippy map based on OSM data on my home page where I  
also earn money from banner ads?"
"Can I put a slippy map based on OSM data up on my company page where  
I charge for using it, and sue people who make a copy of my version?"
"Can I use OSM data for preparing a report about asphalted roads in  
Europe which I then sell to the industry for a fortune?"
"Can I use OSM data to prepare a cycling map that is available free  
of charge to the members of my cycling club, but everyone else has to  
pay for it?"
"Can I use OSM data to prepare a road map for my little village and  
make it available no-strings-attached to anyone who wants to use it  
for any purpose?"

Don't try to answer them here. Do it in the wiki ;-)

I'm all for as-permissive-as-can-be. I don't care whether our data is  
shipped with commercial navigation systems and their producers make a  
fortune from it as long as every other person on the planet has the  
opportunity to do the same. (Actually I'd be somewhat proud if our  
data someday reached a level where the professionals would think  
about using it.) Being a computer guy interested in the field, maybe  
I'll someday create my own commercial product and I would  be  
thoroughly pissed off if at that time I found out that I cannot use  
OSM data, to which I contributed all the time, because of licensing  
concerns.

(Incidentally, isn't it hypocritical to call something "free" if it  
comes with tons of strings attached of what you are and are not  
allowed to do with it, and what you must do if you use it in your  
work and so on? This just because someone here said "free as in free  
software and certainly not PD". But I know I'm rather on my own with  
that viewpoint.)

Last posting about license stuff. Promise.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00.09' E008°23.33'