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

[Richard Fairhurst]

Martin Koppenhoefer wrote:
> Since cc-by-sa 2.0 times, the suggestion to credit OSM was "© 
> OpenStreetMap contributors", but from the current legal situation
> (all necessary rights granted to the OSMF) it wouldn't be 
> necessary to credit the contributors.

When I wrote the /copyright page all those years ago, the reasons it
required that particular attribution were:

"©" because that's what copyright statements traditionally begin with. I
take Kathleen's point (obviously I do, she's a lawyer and I'm not :) ) that
the ODbL, of course, is not a simple licensing of copyright. But the "©"
serves to say "hey look, here's the required credit, just like the credits
that are required by other maps".

"OpenStreetMap" because... yeah obviously.

"contributors" because I wanted to communicate the nature of the project:
this is an open map with (plural) contributors. Contrast with the
attribution for other map data suppliers which just have a corporate brand:
"TomTom", "Navteq" (as it was), "Ordnance Survey". By saying "OpenStreetMap
contributors", we communicate that the map has many contributors - and,
implicitly, you could be one too. So it serves as a recruiting sergeant for
OSM, while conveying the democratic, grassroots nature of the project. To my
mind the main driver for attribution has always been to get more
contributors and make the map better.

I'm past caring what it says now, but thought the original rationale might
be helpful.

Richard



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