In my opinion OSM will never recover to the same point that it is at today if data is removed for the simple reason that most, if not all government data will need to be removed, and there is no way that private mappers can replace this as there are no physical markings on the ground, or water as the case may be.
I am also kind of surprised at the attitude by some that seem to relish the removal of data from OSM. There is no advantage to changing the license, irrepearable damage if the license is changed. People might remap areas for a different license, which on the face of it is very petty, or they may simply add to data for a different mapping project, which is inherently better due to extra data. It is a bit like BSD and Linux. Not many people are even aware that Apple use BSD as their foundation, while Linux, Apple and anyone else can use any part of BSD, BSD is by itself. Linux started long after BSD, yet it is very much stronger because of its license. As soon as OSM delete the CC-by-SA data, a number of "forks" will appear, including FOSM. http://www.fosm.org/ There will be a shakedown period of about a year while different forks fight for critical mass, then there will only be one. The new project will include data from OSM, as well as a lot of CC-by-SA data, making it the best map for public use in both the short and long term. OSM will only have a slight advantage in that OSM is better known, but that advantage will quickly fade as the new project will be advertised where ever it is used, while OSM will probably be rebranded by whoever uses it. The longer new uses do not have the option of a CC-by-SA license, the more people will just not start mapping, and the ratio of public domain data to CC-by-SA data will slightly drift towards the public domain simply due to the lack of other new users using the CC-by-SA data license. If OSM gave people a choice, both when adding data and when viewing maps, or using the data in other ways, all of this in fighting would simply have no point.
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