On Tue, Jun 02, 2009 at 06:22:04PM -0500, P Kishor wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 5:59 PM, Steve Coast <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Jun 2, 2009, at 9:51 PM, Stefan Keller wrote:
> >
> >> "..., OSM doesn't even let you do mashups." [1]
> > ...
> > [1] http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg03286.html
> >
> > That's a confusing statement from SteveC: If one can't make mashups with
> > OSM, then we really have either to change OSM's license or stop speaking of
> > OSM being open (or launch an own project perhaps called 'OpenBaseMap'?).
> >
> > One of the things I've learnt over the last year is that the things I
> > say tongue in cheek on mailing lists are often misconstrued. This was one of
> > those things. Basically there are some unfortunate cases in CC which do
> > indeed make mashups difficult,
> 
> could you please elaborate what are the "unfortunate cases in CC" that
> make mashups difficult?

It depends on the interpretation of "Collective" vs. "Derivative" work.

As it stands now, the common interpretation is basically:
 * If you have different map 'layers' -- seperate objects -- it's
   *probably* a collective work. If you don't, it's probably a
   derivative work.
 
 * If you have a mashup which works by putting multiple layers into the
   same image, it's probably a derivative work.

A use case one can imagine is using the  Google Maps Static API, which
takes information from a URL and plots it directly into an image. IF you
use the Google Maps Javascript API, it's collective, and okay, but if it
ends up in the same image, it's a derivative, and since you can't
provide GMaps under the CC-SA license, it's a violation of the license.

This falls into a number of categories: If I'm a magazine editor, and I
want to use OSM maps for the 'base' of all the maps I use for stories, I
can't do it, because it means I have to give away that derivative image
away under CC-SA. (There has been some discussion about whether the
magazine itself would need to be SA, but I believe that's effectivelwy
been determined to usually be collective.) 

With OSM being most effective as a base map, not having the ability to
produce works which include other non-open data is a significant
blocker. the ODBL is a step in the direction of making it clear that
this is allowed in more cases, I believe.

(This is from my personal readings of various mailing lists, and does
not represent the legal opinions of anyone, or the opinions of OSM, my
employer, or anyone else.)

Regards,
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
MetaCarta

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