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

[David Murn]

On Sat, 2011-04-16 at 23:36 +0100, 80n wrote:

> Do you think that Google haven't considered the possibilty of
> incorporating OSM data into their MapMaker database?  Why do you think
> they haven't?  Perhaps our data is not good enough for them?  Or
> perhaps, legally, they don't think they have the right?

I think the 'not good' enough argument pretty much hits the nail on the
head.  As great as our data may be, any commercial entity probably has
access to similar data, which they can probably get with some sort of
quality assurance guarantee.  If google wants maps of a city/town/state,
they just goto the government of the area and get it.  They know its
complete, they know its accurate, they know if theres a problem with the
data that theres only one source to contact.

> There is zero chance that any large organisation would try to use
> OSM's CC-BY-SA licensed map data and think that they would get away
> with it.

This may also be because the owners of the CC-BY-SA data, arent
necessarily individuals.  In the Australian case, if someone tried to
use the Australian OSM data without attribution, it wouldnt just be an
individual user who was interested in suing, but quite possibly several
government departments and organisations who have supplied this licenced
data.  I doubt the ABS will be too keen on hearing of people using their
data without attribution.

David