Hello everyone, (from co-author of ODbL and PDDL)
I have been busy and so am just now going back through the OSM legal talk list. Before (and if) I comment further on some of the substantive legal issues I have to clarify one point rather forcefully, so forgive me being blunt: On 17 Oct 2008, at 19:51, Jochen Topf wrote: > > But the layer should make a comment. Its his job to tell us, what will > work and what will not work. If we create a license that is not > enforcable, why bother? On 17 Oct 2008, at 21:54, Frederik Ramm wrote: > If we (or our lawyers) should > believe that ODbL without clickthrough doesn't work, and that > therefore > a decision in favour of ODbL is a decision in favour of clickthrough, > then we must let people know - *before* they decide. I know that OSMF is engaging with a law firm to look at this pro bono, but let me be clear on my role. I am not OSMF's lawyer. I have not at any time given legal advice to OSMF. I, with Charlotte Waelde, drafted a community solution for a copyleft data licence with funding by Talis. Talis did not sponsor us to draft a licence for them, but rather to look at the problem of a copyleft data licence from a general and academic standpoint and put something forward. This was the ODbL. Science Commons released their Open Access Data materials that called for a public domain dedication for data. Seeing this, Talis sponsored us to draft a public domain dedication. This is the PDDL. Because we switched tracks to the PDDL, Charlotte and I didn't go through as many rounds of revision and feedback on the ODbL (the copyleft licence) as the PDDL. OSMF approached me with an interest in supporting further development of the ODbL in the same way as Talis (as general support for the project). They supported further development and made suggestions based on the OSM use case, but the ODbL from my standpoint is and always will be a community solution. I was never under any obligation to change the licence specifically for OSM. I have met with OSMF people and explained how the ODbL is drafted and how we thought it could work, but again, do not offer and have never offered specific legal advice for OSMF or its implementation. I Am Actually A Lawyer (IAAAL) But I Am Not Your Lawyer (BIANYL). Even though my time has been financially supported to work on open data, I worked at a significantly reduced rate and have donated lots of pro bono time over the past year on both this and the PDDL licence. I am trying, like almost all of us, to balance a busy work load and a personal life against a desire to volunteer time on open source / open content projects (including this one). I really really like the project and will donate time to work on it from this perspective (not as OSM's lawyer but as the co-creator of the ODbL). Thanks! ~Jordan ____ Mr. Jordan S Hatcher, JD, LLM jordan at opencontentlawyer dot com OC Blog: http://opencontentlawyer.com IP/IT Blog: http://twitchgamer.net Open Data Commons <http://opendatacommons.org> Usage of Creative Commons by cultural heritage organisations http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/studies/cc2007 _______________________________________________ legal-talk mailing list legal-talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/legal-talk
