Peter, > I posted a query about various 'Use Cases' for OSM data in regard to the new > licence on the 7th Feb. See archive here: > > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/legal-talk/2008-February/000680.htm > l > > I was concerned to see that the answers received were not conclusive and > that no response has been given by a qualified lawyer.
The answers given _on_this_list_ are never going to be conclusive because we are all mappers, not lawyers. We've taken into account your feedback, along with everyone else's, in the response that OSMF has submitted to Jordan (as co-author of the Open Data Commons) licence. (For what it's worth, as the person who drew up OSMF's response to Open Data Commons, I can happily assure you that your contribution took more hours to incorporate into the response than any other!) Jordan is, of course, a qualified lawyer (in some jurisdictions) and will be consulting further with experts in the field of EU database law. He has come back to us with further queries and we are aiming to express the will of the community and the best interests of OSM in our response to him. As OSMF, we are more than confident that his consultation will take into account current pressures and debates in data licensing. The licence "working group" (Steve, Andy and I) have to reconcile many different philosophies of licensing, enforceability in different jurisdictions, the likelihood of adoption by the community, and how affordable all of this work is. We cannot snap our fingers and magically come up with an answer that will suit everyone. We are optimistic, however, that by balancing the many different opinions and pressures, we will be able to propose a solution that is acceptable to the community and an overall improvement. Please don't think that legal-talk is a direct "ask a lawyer" channel. It isn't. However, all the responses to the licence consultation - via this list, via the wiki, and via private e-mail - have been taken into account in OSMF's ongoing licence discussions. I personally have spent enough furrowed-brow evenings gathering together people's contributions that I can assure you every throwaway comment has been listened to. Ultimately OSMF will propose a licensing option to the community, and it is up to the community to accept it or not. We are very optimistic that, aided by the feedback here, the discussions we are having right now are the best option for OSM now and in the future. We cannot and will not force a licence on anyone, but we are taking a great deal of time over this to ensure that what we present to the community is as appropriate, watertight and future-proofed as it can be. I hope that you and others will recognise that, even if we can't please all the people all the time, we have gone to a great deal of effort to find the best, and most robsut, solution for the developing community as a whole. Richard for OSMF _______________________________________________ legal-talk mailing list legal-talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/legal-talk
