[OSM-talk] Explaining to NASA why the ASTER data should be freely licensed

[Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason]

I contacted people at NASA asking whether they were planning on
releasing their ASTER data under a license that would be suitable for
projects like OSM. I quoted them the terms they present upon download
which would be problematic:

"""
# I agree to redistribute the ASTER GDEM only to individuals within my
organization or project of intended use or in response to disasters in
support of the GEO Disaster Theme. (Required)

# When presenting or publishing ASTER GDEM data, I agree to include
"ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA."
"""

As it turns out the first clause is (apparently) to facilitate
tracking of how the data is used and so that they can announce
updates, and the second is to ensure proper attribution. I've asked
them permission to quote their complete reply but that's basically it.

So, what we should do is to author a document (on the wiki?) which
clearly explains why such terms which restrict redistribution and
fields of endeavor mean that free content projects like OSM can't use
the data and will have to keep using SRTM.