On 22/09/2020 17.43, GITNE wrote:
As far as I can tell no document covers changeset comments either
explicitly nor implicitly. The Contributor Terms state that
“…contributing data and/or any other content (collectively,
“Contents”) to the geo-database of the OpenStreetMap project (the
“Project”)” is explicitly limited to contributions to the
geo-database (map database). As far as I can tell changeset comments
are not part of the OSM's geo-database. Changeset comments
themselves do not contain any geo-data, they merely reference a
changeset. The changeset contains geo-data and is what actually
becomes part of the geo-database. Thus naturally changesets are
covered by the Contributor Terms but not changeset comments.
Consequently, it should be fair to assume that the copyright to
changeset comments remains with their respective authors. However,
since changeset comments are apparently neither explicitly nor
implicitly covered by any agreement or license, it should be also
fair to assume that by the act of creating comments on OSM's website
commentators do grant copyright to the OSMF, though limited in scope.
I'm pretty sure there is no *copyright* granted to OSM. Likewise...
It is fair to assume that the scope is limited to the production or
quality assurance of the map. I think that given this situation it
should be very difficult to argue that commentators implicitly grant
copyright to any other party than the OSMF, publish comments into the
public domain, or for any extended purpose.
Anyhow, imho either way it would not be wise—today's more fashionable
word here would be “smart”—for the OSMF to grant changeset comment
copyright to others.
I am ***almost certain*** that OSM does not grant *copyright* to other
parties.
I'm pretty sure the term you want is *license*. This may sound pedantic,
but this is an area where getting your terminology correct can matter,
and there is a ***huge*** difference between granting "copyright"
(assigning *total ownership and all rights* to another party) and
granting "license" (extending *limited* rights to another party while
retaining ownership).
As far as I know (and can tell from
https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Contributor_Terms),
contribution to OSM are *not* subject to copyright assignment.
--
Matthew
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