[OSM-talk] License to kill

[Peter Miller]

On 4 Mar 2009, at 04:28, SteveC wrote:

>
snip
> We blame Steve because he's evil. We blame the process because it took
> too long. We blame the working group for not being quicker. We figure
> the foundation must be culpable. We write long rants about how it's a
> dire emergency...
>
snip
>

My main criticism in relation to license Steve is not that you are  
'evil' but that you have been absent. Your last post in relation to  
the license on legal-talk was over three months go (25th Nov).

Given that you are the only person who has attended meetings with  
'our' lawyer and that until recently even the other directors of the  
foundation were in the dark we need your input urgently. Even now, we  
have other foundation directors asking questions about the license on  
legal-talk - very strange.

To help you we (ie the wider OSM community) have been maintaining and  
developing the legal side of the wiki over the past 6 months. Few of  
us have been in on the process so it would be handy if you were able  
to cast your eye over all the pages that relate to the ODbL and make  
any corrections that are necessary. They are all in the Open Data  
Licence Category:-
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:Open_Data_Licence

We have also  collected the key questions and requirements onto two  
wiki pages.

The Use Cases page has lists in plain english some of the things we  
want to do with the data and we have had a legal response to some. It  
would be helpful if you could explain the Use Cases to our lawyer so  
he can give answers to the ones where he has said 'I need someone to  
walk me through this one':-
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_Licence/Use_Cases

The Open Issues page lists the key questions to which we don't have  
answers. There is a space below each one where you can provide details  
from your discussions with 'our' lawyer as to how he sees these  
questions being addressed:-
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/Open_Issues

For your interest my company's lawyer (acting for ITO World Ltd) is  
hoping to have her response together in relation to the license by the  
end of tomorrow. My company will review her comments and hope to be  
able to make that document publicly available to the community by the  
end of this week. She may also give opinion on some Use Cases and Open  
Issues which could be useful.



Regards,



Peter