Hi, sorry to post yet again today... I usually try to like not blab more than once or twice a week or two...
We have absolutely no right to the data of our peers unless our peers > give that right to us. Yes of course... I tried to say that... I totally agree. > We have all the right in the world to choose to use what product we want > to. Sure. But that aside - what will clearly happen anyway - despite our power to make choices etcetera - is that MapMaker will accidentally crush OSM if it undergoes wide adoption. And it is probably accidental. This is the most likely actual future... Note that MapMaker probably has to exist in general - it is inevitable - and so OSM obviously can't think about competing by being unique. But the licensing could make it possible to share the data. There's a hydraulic despotism at work; the market gets something cheap and then becomes dependent on that choice. The monopolist then can steer the market and pricing... In this case it is probably accidental... we make choices as groups all the time that metaphorically destroy wetlands, ecosystems, diversity, downstream dependencies... We have often a legal right to make those choices. In the case of a digital ecosystem - what would be the best decision that would foster the most diversity and growth? The highest bar would be to demonstrate total integrity and commitment to the world... why not? It's not really any hassle for them to do so... Google is integral to the Web at this point - try use the web without Google. It is not like they are going to have their market position eroded by people ripping off and repurposing the collaborative edits of the world map... So why even bother with any moderate stance? If we were building all this for ourselves, for the people, we'd not bother with any luke-warm diluted stance... we'd just turn that dial as far as we could towards freedom. I hope to be part of an open source movement that doesn't browbeat > others to join it, but offers a viable, useful and attractive > alternative that competes on merit *and* philosophy. I want to like > open source because I like open source, not because I hate the other > kind. I can live with both. I do live with both. > Anyway I'm just trying out the thesis that there may exist inalienable data rights... seeing if it fits, if it has wrinkles. It's not really thought out yet... a
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