Hi again,
Rob and Frederik - I don't think it's too much of a leap to say that
you're never going to convince each other. ;)
A note on consultation and community might be helpful.
As the Foundation we are, of course, keeping track of the different
strands of opinion within the community (share-alike or not,
attribution or not, and so on). List discussion is helpful for this,
as was SOTM, and there are many more avenues where OSMers make their
feelings known.
As the opengeodata posting states, We cant change anything without
you. You, not the Foundation, own the rights to your mapping. So our
interest is in finding a solution that has a realistic chance of being
adopted by the community.
Right now, this debate is part of an informal consultation, if you
like. Now that we've posted the update, people are of course going to
voice their views, and those will feed into the rough view of the OSM
community. There will no doubt be more updates posted on opengeodata
during which the rough view will evolve further.
If the rough view (for example) appeared to coalesce around ODCL
looks good, let's do it now, we would be able to start work on a
formal relicensing process. (I'd envisage, and this is very definitely
only my perception rather than an as-yet adopted Foundation plan, that
such relicensing could involve: discussion with the ODC authors until
the licenses are in a state we consider usable; independent review by
a qualified third party; and, finally, contacting every single
registered OSM user to request their assent to the change.)
If this rough view, however, does not settle so neatly, then the
Foundation will need to decide whether it should embark on a formal
consultation before the relicensing (maybe like the poll that some
have mentioned); and the outcome of that consultation would affect the
proposed relicensing.
I should note that there's nothing[1] in this process that only the
Foundation can do. It is something the Foundation _wants_ to do just
because of its role to look after the best interests of the project.
Anyone who wants to open discussions with a lawyer or stage their own
poll is welcome to: I would hope that the Foundation is being open
enough that no-one would feel the need to start a whole separate
process, but the option is always there.
cheers
Richard
[1] except, in the event of a relicensing, a potential mail-out to
every registered OSM user.
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