Vivek Bansal <3viv...@gmail.com> writes: > We are using the San Jose data which has an ODbL compliant license (and any > government data in California has the same).
I'm following the San José discussion and don't wish to get too technically legal: I am not an attorney, though I have paid attention to the legal situation with state (of California) produced geo data and how our state "Open Data/Open Records" laws plus two fairly recent California Supreme Court decisions make state-published data roughly if not essentially equivalent to public domain. These legal circumstances taken together with OSM's ODBL result in "be free to use the data, OSM, they are ODbL compliant." It isn't exactly correct to use the word "license" in how California publishes geo data. It IS correct that such data are "ODBL compliant." It isn't a license that grants this, it is case law or stare decisis (Latin for "let the decision stand") which confirm such data published by the state comply with both statutory law (California Public Records Act, CPRA) and California's state constitution. The bottom line is "the data are ODbL compliant" though it isn't via "license." Let's not get sloppy with how we understand "ODbL" or use the word "license" when to do so isn't quite correct. Yet let's not get too legally onerous, or nit-picky, either. Juuuuuust right, enough said. Vivek, please understand I'm not "barking hard" at you: you are correct to use the data, I simply notice a little smudge using the word "license" here. I feel a need to type this: maybe one more person gets a sharper focus on how state Open Data laws in the US can and do work for OSM (yay!) and we converse about that with rather precise verbiage. The Code for San José orientation might briefly explain to participants how this all works: California (public agency produced) geo data rather neatly comply with ODbL in a nice straight path springing from CPRA and stare decisis, which neatly mesh with ODbL — it's pretty cool if you enjoy the intricacies of legal stuff like copyright and license compliance. From an OSM perspective, I suppose it can be said we are fortunate to have as much state (of California) published geo data available to us as we do; I certainly am grateful for these circumstances! Thanks for reading, SteveA California _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
