[geo-discuss] copyright not applicable to geodata?

Mon Apr 2 09:09:55 UTC 2007

Rufus Pollock wrote:

> Thus the simple message to the openstreetmap and other list should be:
> stop worrying and keep licensing.

Mmm, but I'm not convinced there's nothing for us to worry about.

OSM is licensed as CC-BY-SA 2.0, which expressly defines the "Work" as  
"the copyrightable work of authorship offered under the terms of this  
License" (1e). Now it looks like OSM, and other geodata, may not be  
copyrightable - it's database-rightable (sorry, that's not a word). At  
this point the applicability of the licence starts to look a little  
shaky, because we aren't using CC-Netherlands/Belgium.

I do agree with your point on the SPARC-OpenData list about the  
"social contract", but unfortunately if someone exploits it _despite_  
that, the result is either big fat legal fees or an unenforced licence.

We (OSM) are asking lawyers about this.

cheers
Richard