On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 3:09 PM, F. Heinen f.heinen...@gmail.com wrote:
Hi all,
Let me first introduce myself, I am Frank aka Frenzel. I am a community
member of OSM.nl since Aug. 2009, so relatively new but also quite active.
I hope I mail this to the right mailing list.
Hi Frank,
I'm Richard, an OSM participant from Canada. I've been following the
license discussions for a couple of years now but seldom participate.
I think license details are important, and that the Foundation will
get it right.
I speak for myself only.
In the Dutch mailing list already a few times a discussion started on the
license change that OSMF likes to do (or is needed).
But the community doesn't seem to be convinced, are missing answers and no
consensus is found. So herewith some questions from my side which I hope can
clarify
the questions from me (and I guess from more of the community members).
Note: I want to keep this on a human understandable and general level!
Okay. I can do that. I'm a human.
1 - What (human understandable) reasons are there to change the OSM license?
cc-by-sa is written for single creative works, like a song, sculpture,
or movie script. cc-by-sa is not designed to apply to data or
databases. Creative commons told us this after we started using
cc-by-sa. There was nothing else suitable when OSM started.
2 - What information can be found so the community can read more about it?
This is great.
http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/summary/
3 - Are feasibility studies done on the following levels:
3.1 - Data/DB level - For example how to do with changes of the data where
the original contributor doesn't accept the new license?
See below.
3.2 - Contributor level - What the changes are that reasonable amount of
contributors will accept the change?
Depends who asks the questions and with what goal in mind.
3.3 - Community emotional level - For example how the community will deal
with data that will not be move where people put in hard work, TLC and free
time (and maybe even money).
I believe that the community is taking every reasonable precaution in
the license change. Also that the revisions and re-starts in the
license change process have lead to a better, clearer license.
I think that the change, when it happens will be much smoother that we
feared. I realize that we will lose some data, and that is a shame.
I think that the community will continue to grow and thrive.
4 - Is there any documentation based on what reasons we can convince
companies that donated data to accept the changed license?
For years, this possibility should have been made clear during
discussions of the donation. For years. If we missed that
opportunity to get ODbL pre-approved, the similarities to cc-by-sa are
very helpful.
An Italian lawyer described ODbL as cc-by-sa without the problems.
(see page 2)
http://www.osmfoundation.org/images/archive/3/3c/20091205200018!License_Proposal.pdf
ODbL is an Attribution, ShareAlike license. ODbL is intended for data
and databases. The OSM community helped lawyers, expert in
international law and intellectual property law develop ODbL.
Folks who thought cc-by-sa was the right way to proceed should jump
enthusiastically to ODbL.
5 - Is there a roadmap of this license change?
Sure. I haven't looked at it recently, and I'm sure we're a few days
or weeks or something behind schedule. Everybody involved is a
volunteer. I don't mind.
6 - Is there a plan on how to implement this change?
Of course. And there have been many reviews of the plans from many
individuals in the community. This has been ongoing for more than
three years.
7 - What are the minimum goals that this license change will be accepted?
For example on data level: how much of the OSM data must be put on ODbL to
accept it? So what if only 10% of the data is accepted?
As I understand it, the need for change has been accepted and the
license upgrade will happen. Exact percentages are impossible to
predict in advance. But this chart is interesting. 50% of way data
is contributed by 31 user accounts. So if only those 31 users say
yes, we keep 50% of the data. I believe that way more than 31 users
will accept the license. And I believe that the vast majority of our
data will successfully be relicensed as ODbL.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Stats#Contribution_percentage_by_user
I hope you guys can shine some light on my questions.
Hope that helps.
Again, just my perspective.
Also, I think it is important to thank the community for making OSM as
much fun as it is. We're all volunteers, participating in OSM because
we enjoy it. When some volunteer to do even more, like by
participating the OSMF and doing things that we can't do as
individuals, I think that is a real benefit to the rest of us.
For example. I could have asked everybody to send me money so I could
buy a new database server for OSM. Perhaps some folks would have sent
the money. But
