[OSM-talk] Join the OSMF !

[Nathan Edgars II]

On 6/10/2011 7:49 PM, Dermot McNally wrote:
> On 11 June 2011 00:15, Nathan Edgars II<neroute2 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>
>> I think you're being deliberately obtuse
>
> That's amusing coming from somebody who thinks he can inhibit the use
> of data he has declared as PD, but let's carry on...

Eh? I don't think I can inhibit the use. I wish to 'vote' no.
>
>> , but I'll continue to assume
>> otherwise. In a democracy, there are no personal consequences for voting
>> either way. One's vote is counted, and *the final tally is the only thing a
>> vote counts for*. If yes voters and no voters are treated differently after
>> the vote, it's not a democratic vote.
>
> Switzerland around the same time held a referendum on whether to ban
> the building of Minarets. I expect that many Muslims voted against the
> ban. The referendum was carried. No voters _are_ treated differently
> after the vote.
>
> The vote was democratic by any definition. It happens to be IMO a very
> dark incident for democracy, but that doesn't take away from the
> facts.

I'm not sure what this has to do with anything. Nobody is treated 
differently based on how they voted, in contrast with the OSM license 
change.
>
>> Hence the new license acceptance
>> process is not a democratic vote.
>
> Your definition of democracy does not seem to accord with mine. Where
> did you get it?

As an example, 
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/d0b7f023e8d6d9898025651e004bc0eb?Opendocument 
#20
States should take measures to guarantee the requirement of the secrecy 
of the vote during elections...

Obviously if there are personal consequences of voting a certain way, 
the vote cannot be secret. The solution would have been to have two 
clearly separate questions:
Do you think the license should be changed? (link to the pro- and anti- 
pages on the wiki)
Are you willing to relicense your contributions?

Both results would be made public, but only the latter would be linked 
to contributors.

In the real world, consequences of voting a certain way are generally 
present in dictatorships that wish to have faux elections. I'm not 
saying that the OSMF is holding such a faux vote, but if the license 
change is treated as a vote that's the only kind of vote it can be 
compared to.