[GRASSLIST:7867] Re: Geographic Data Liscences

[Tyler Mitchell]

This topic has been somewhat debated and discussed on the openstreetmaps 
mailing list.  This UK effort for creating road data and making it 
freely available has had to deal with the same questions you are asking 
about.  Off the top of my head, they were discussing using the 
creativecommons.org attribution and share-alike licensing methods, but 
also discussed more.  Have a look at their archives over the last couple 
months to see:
http://bat.vr.ucl.ac.uk/pipermail/openstreetmap/

Hope that helps,
Tyler


Dave Sampson wrote:
> Hey Folks,
> 
> I'm interested to gather some resources that helps explain what 
> liscencing options exist for Geographic Data. Or perhaps even just data 
> in general. Many sources just go straight for the Copyright Act. For the 
> public or open domain what exists? The Ottawa GRASS Users Group (OGUG) 
> [http://cemml.carleton.ca/OGUG/], is in the process of prepairing 
> another publicly available dataset like the spearfish set, however 
> focusing on the local region. If you have insight to Canadian liscence 
> laws, please let me know.
> 
> Would software liscences or documentation liscences be more closely 
> connected to data?
> 
> I figure that Creative Commons can easily be applied to geographic data.
> 
> The Free Software Foundation does not endorse, but cites Design Science, 
> a "copyleft" approach. They also list GNU Free Documentation Liscence, 
> FreeBSD Documentation Liscence, and Open Publication Liscence.
> 
> GPLdata.com looks promising but no explanation if it is a liscence, or 
> just a repository of data. Does their use of GPL relate to GNU Public 
> Liscence or some other abreviation.
> 
> What liscence might protect the data gatherer from liability.
>