[OSM-talk] License plan

[Simon Ward]

On Tue, Mar 03, 2009 at 05:21:02PM +0100, Tobias Knerr wrote:
> because of a change to the data, but the (unpublished) tools creating
> the images, thus nothing of use would be contributed back to the "free
> world" with ODbL.

Then we need to make sure as many tools as possible are free software,
and are at least as good as the proprietary competition.

I have had to explain to free software advocates before (I am one) that
OpenStreetMap is about free geodata, not necessarily free software.

Still, some free software advocates will go off in a hissy fit because
they believe the project has its priorities wrong.  The better answer
would to get behind the free software tools that are already out there,
maybe even help to develop more, and compete with proprietary software
the same way free software always has done.  It turns out that much of
the software for OpenStreetMap is free software.

> I don't think explaining that data is more useful for us than images
> will help (I've already tried that), because that won't stop them from
> demanding both.

Similarly, we can put enough free images out there for them to be useful
to all, and make the non‐free ones hardly worth the pixels/vectors.

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall
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