OK - there is an 'official procedure' for dealing with copyright infringement
documented on http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/Takedown_procedure
through which even 'Cease and Desist' should be handled? It is normal practice
nowadays to follow the 'Digital Millennium Copyright Act' rules for all
copyright and trademark disputes relating to the internet.
What seems to be missing however is a documented procedure for handling those
requests?
With regards the recent C&D notice, a statement has been made that 'we may not
be able to publish the content of the document', but if the procedure simply
said that these documents will be published as part of the process - as they
should be - then there is not a problem. While not directly applicable, the
Freedom of information act in the UK may well come into play if local
authorities start using the data more formally. This is my own area of interest,
and I am providing systems to locations that are covered by the act. The OSMF
needs to have clear internal policies in place to cover that situation.
What I would suggest is required is a section of the
http://www.osmfoundation.org website that provides access to all of this
information. Since the OSM project is open, it would make sense that in addition
to publishing the material, the 'wiki' process was used to allow comments to be
added to a request, but that would be determined by the documented procedure.
United Kingdom law takes precedent over anything that the OSMF does ;)
--
Lester Caine - G8HFL
-----------------------------
Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/wiki/?page=contact
L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk
EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/
Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk
Rainbow Digital Media - http://rainbowdigitalmedia.co.uk
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