[OSM-talk] What could we do to make this licences discussion more inclusive?

[Ed Avis]

Ulf Möller <osm <at> ulfm.de> writes:

>>1. Current license does not cover the OSM data (I think that's the OSMF
>>view).  In this  case, OSMF can just change to ODBL without asking anyone.
>
>The OSMF has a contractual relationship with its contributors. So if 
>there is no copyright protection on the CC-BY-SA licensed dataset that 
>does not mean the OSMF can do anything it wants with the data.

Sure, but anyone could set up a new legal entity and clone the data.  That
would certainly be less disruptive than asking everyone for permission and
deleting those who refuse.  (And morally, I don't think there is that much to
choose between the two options either - deleting people's contributions which
they made in good faith in the expectation of helping create a free, CC-licensed
map seems pretty unpleasant too.)

So again, either CC-BY-SA 'protects' the data or it does not.  And if it does
not, why the need for all the fuss?

-- 
Ed Avis <eda at waniasset.com>