[OSM-talk] Mixing OSM and FOSM data

Russ Nelson nelson at crynwr.com
Mon Jan 16 02:38:41 GMT 2012


Nathan Edgars II writes:
 > On 1/15/2012 3:00 PM, Russ Nelson wrote:
 > > Frederik Ramm writes:
 > >   >  I am amazed at the constant disregard of legal-talk, a list that was
 > >   >  created *precisely* for license questions.
 > >
 > > These questions have nothing to do with the law, and everything to do
 > > with how the community edits.
 > >
 > Actually this specific question was about the law and the license.

No, it isn't. It's about the OSMF's interpretation of the law and the
license. That may or may not have anything to do with what one or
another or another lawyer or judge might say. We will probably never
find out, but we WILL find out what the OSMF thinks, and sooner rather
than later.

Now, in my experience with lawyers and the law, adjuducating a case is
*extremely* expensive. Interesting edge cases only get litigated by
very rich entities who have a lot of money at stake. I don't think
either of the latter two clauses of that sentence describes anybody
associated with OpenStreetMap.

The OSMF seems determined to avoid any edge cases by being very
conservative. Is that necessary? I'm pretty sure not, but it's what
we're going to have to live with. So, I repeat, the decisions made by
the OSMF about what will and won't be deleted from the database have
nothing to do with what the law *actually* requires, and there's no
reason why they should be discussed in the legal-talk ghetto.

-- 
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