[Aust-NZ] OSM Licensing - [was Fwd: RE: Aust-NZ Digest, Vol 36, Issue 8] [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Robert Coup]

On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 5:25 PM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com>wrote:

> On 6 September 2010 11:38, Robert Coup <robert.coup at koordinates.com>
> wrote:
> > Nobody is arguing with that. It's just that CC licenses and particularly
> > CC-BY-SA don't mean what's "on the cover" with respect to datasets.
> Creative
> > Commons themselves say they shouldn't be used.
>
> Actually things aren't that simple. Maps were the first things
> protected by copyright apparently and according to Francis Davey, who
> claims to be a lawyer, copyright law doesn't usually state what form a
> map has to be in, to be protected by copyright law.
>

A map is clearly a creative work - here we're talking about the *data*. The
map tiles are intended to be CC-BY-SA licensed iirc.

Databases are explicitly not covered in a number of jurisdictions (in NZ/Au
they are), notably the US - there need's to be "creative expression" which
doesn't apply to facts or collections of facts. See
http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/Why_CC_BY-SA_is_Unsuitable -
there's very little argument about that part.


> It also jumps from copyright only to contract law which may put anyone
> distributing data on the end of a lawsuit, just so the new
> license/contract can be enforced, even if the person downloading the
> data from you directly doesn't breach the license/contract directly.
>

Can you explain that & provide some references? It uses contract law as well
as copyright law, but that's a good thing in being able to enforce
provisions in jurisdictions where copyright law does not apply. CC allows
contributors to sue for infringement.

I'm not saying ODbL is fantastic, just that CC-BY-SA is not suitable, at
all. The OSM community & foundation is well aware of the problems (including
with ODbL) - personally I'm confident that if the issues become
insurmountable then they'll go back to the drawing board again.

Personally I'm a CC0/Public-Domain kinda guy, but the huge number of
contributors who wanted and continue to want a share-alike license need
their wishes respected - and with something that is legally meaningful.

Rob :)
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