[OSM-talk] A super quick poll

[Martijn van Oosterhout]

On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 10:09 AM, OJ W <ojwlists at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 7:59 AM, Joseph Gentle <josephg at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The public domain will benefit OSM.
>
> What incentive would anyone have to add datasets to OSM if it were PD?
>  Surely it would be easier and less risky for them to keep their own
> work in a separate database and combine it with OSM later so they get
> a better map than everyone else, hence competitive advantage. Why
> would they bother to share their work unnecessarily?

This suggests that merging two datasets is low cost, which I think we
know from experience simply isn't true. The situation you suggest
isn't feasable simple because combining data privately isn't
cost-effective in any way.

OSM will win because it's got a community that contributes and fixes
stuff, not because we have a viral licence.  OSM would simply
outdevelop any competitor, even if it was under PD.

Oops, this discussion shouldn't be here, sorry :)

Have a nice day,
-- 
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog at gmail.com> http://svana.org/kleptog/