Hi, this is a posting calling upon everyone to work together in spite of "political" differences.
Peter Miller wrote: > My concern on this list at present is that all the discussion about PD/SA > politics is making this process harder. Please please can the PD advocates > get their own list (within OSM or outside) and take their valuable political > conversation there The issue is not going to go away just by telling people to please talk elsewhere. The very "process" that you speak of has no legitimation or authority in the project that would make it immune against being questioned. The PD community has the same right to talk to the OSM public and try to get their support as anyone else in OSM. The foundation is in no position to dictate a new license to the project, and neither am I or you. The foundation said that they believe PD would face too much opposition but that's just a wild guess; nobody has ever even tried to ask the OSM contributors, and the foundation does not, to my knowledge, intend to. The foundation has not, to my knowledge, honestly investigated the pros and cons of PD versus trying to build your custom international IP license, but instead started out from the presumption that nothing less than share-alike will do. The foundation does not own the project and has as much right as anyone else to draw up a new license and try to get it accepted. We're steering this ship based on wild guesses, assumptions, and gut feelings. In this situation, it is even more understandable that it is very uncomfortable to have people questioning the course of the ship because you have no facts or evidence to indicate that you're right. I am fully aware that the whole PD/SA discussion makes things harder; everyone had just about accepted that we won't go PD when a new group of people comes in with renewed energy and you start thinking that maybe they do have a point. I also think that we won't be able to go PD at this time, but we have to take these people seriously and we have to get them on board, rather than telling them to shut up because everything is decided already - because, in fact, nothing is decided and if we create a situation where they feel compelled to reach out to the OSM contributors and ask them to reject the ODbL in favour of a PD dedication, maybe with a hint of conspiracy thrown in ("the foundation wants you to accept this license but they're just pushing through their agenda..."), then we are all worse off. The arguments for PD are sound and valid, as are those for the ODbL or other licenses. Real people are behind these arguments, people who can read and think and make up their mind about what they believe is best. Telling them to shut up and go away will not help anyone. I am a staunch defender of PD superiority myself, but prepared to accept the ODbL/FIL construct as a step in the right direction. I think if we take them seriously then we can convince them to join that. If we tell them to shut up and go away, they might answer "no, YOU shut up and go away", and what would we do then? "We have been here for longer than you have" can hardly be a working argument in a project whose membership doubles every few months. Bye Frederik -- Frederik Ramm ## eMail [EMAIL PROTECTED] ## N49°00'09" E008°23'33" _______________________________________________ legal-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/legal-talk