[OSM-talk] OpenStreetMap License Change Phase 3 Pre-Announcement

[Tobias Knerr]

Russ Nelson wrote:
> Unless somebody has a theory under which there will be more mappers
> suing more users, the only rational conclusion can be that the license
> change will hurt OSM, and not help it at all.

I wonder why you believe that the only way a license change can possibly
help OSM is by allowing us to sue more users of our data.

Personally, I don't want to sue anyone. However, I want to unambiguously
have the right to publish an OSM based map that doesn't provide
attribution for every single mapper. I also consider improved
compatibility with other licenses for produced works a welcome benefit.
And I'm almost certain that the legal and social environment in which we
operate will change during the next decades, so it would be nice to be
able to react to them by modifying the terms under which we publish our
maps; preferably without losing orders of magnitudes more data than we
might now. Some also think that the shift of share-alike from works onto
data makes sense, and I think that they have good arguments for that
position.

Clearly, there are a lot of advantages provided by the CT+ODbL that have
nothing at all to do with legal action against our users.

Tobias Knerr