[OSM-talk] remove the suggestion to credit "contributors"

[Martin Koppenhoefer]

Am Fr., 17. Apr. 2020 um 15:37 Uhr schrieb Mario Frasca <mario at anche.no>:

> but if you argue that OpenStreetMap is owned by OpenStreetMapFoundation
> and that "© OpenStreetMap" means "© OpenStreetMapFoundation", then I'd
> rather stick to the current situation, where it's very clear that the
> copyright belongs to contributors, be it as individuals or as a community.



I tried to look at the legal situation (morally, I agree that OpenStreetMap
is more about the community than OpenStreetMapFoundation, indeed that's an
unmentioned reason why I suggested OpenStreetMap and not the foundation to
be credited also in an updated version.

Legally, the copyright actually belongs to the Foundation (and individual
contributors retain their copyright, but grant usage and distribution
rights to the OSMF). It is written in the contract you have signed with the
OSMF (contributor terms). If you download data from OpenStreetMap, your
licensor is the OSMF. You have authorized the OSMF to distribute the
content on their behalf, and to pursue copyright infringements.

"You hereby grant to OSMF a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive,
perpetual, irrevocable licence to do any act that is restricted by
copyright, database right or any related right over anything within the
Contents, whether in the original medium or any other. These rights
explicitly include commercial use, and do not exclude any field of
endeavour. These rights include, without limitation, the right to
sub-license the work through multiple tiers of sub-licensees and to sue for
any copyright violation directly connected with OSMF's rights under these
terms. To the extent allowable under applicable local laws and copyright
conventions, You also waive and/or agree not to assert against OSMF or its
licensees any moral rights that You may have in the Contents."

There are also some conditions of course, "OSMF agrees that it may only use
or sub-license Your Contents as part of a database and only under the terms
of one or more of the following licences: ODbL 1.0 for the database and
DbCL 1.0 for the individual contents of the database; CC-BY-SA 2.0; or such
other free and open licence as may from time to time be chosen by a vote of
the OSMF membership and approved by at least a 2/3 majority vote of active
contributors."

And of course in 5 you have mutually agreed, that "except as set forth
herein, You reserve all right, title, and interest in and to Your Contents."

https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Contributor_Terms

The excerpts are copied from the current version 1.2.4.
There isn't much information (or I didn't find it) to which specific
version one has agreed, nor is the text of former versions publicly
visible, but AFAIK OSMF has internally a trace of who has agreed to which
version, and of course people will have their own copies on their pc.
I don't recall agreeing to any updated versions of the Contributor Terms
after 2012, and I guess nobody has, you always agreed to the current
version when you signed up (or at the license change in 2012), so your
contract with the OSMF may be slightly different.

Cheers
Martin
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