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

[Jiri Vlasak]

On Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 11:47:59AM -0700, Richard Fairhurst wrote:
> 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.

+1. I feel that "contributors" should stay in the credit.

jiri