On 4/05/2011 5:18 PM, David Murn wrote: > Well, I have yet to hear any Australians complain about the freedom of > the data, other than being incompatible with the new one-of-a-kind > licence that OSM is wanting to use.
I'm not objecting to freedom of data. The comment I objected to is the one that said if it is good enough for the Australian government, then it must be good enough for all Australians, with no need to examine it further. That may be valid as someone's opinion, but to say it is the opinion of all Australians is just plainly false. I always thought that in Australia we question our government's decisions, we don't always accept what they are doing is in the national best interest. We challenge, we ask questions, and we push for change when it is needed. We look at what others are doing overseas, and see if they are doing things better or worse. > ... I always assumed that it was groups like google, yahoo, bing > and the like that we were trying to be more open than, not those who > actually opened access to their data. I'm sure, again, that there exists a considerable variety of opinions on this. I'm sure your assumptions are as valid as many others. > What legal expertise do you have which you believes makes you think > youve found problems that the government copyright lawyers didnt with > the licence they chose? Do you also disagree with the licence that OSM > has been distributed under for the past 5 years? After all, it is the > same licence the Australian government (and apparently now NZ > government) are using, and will continue to use. I'm sure they have considered the available licensing options, and given the current state of the law and licensing have given it their best shot. The government has a different decision making basis to what OSM does. Maybe ultimately they align, maybe they don't. I'm not sure. This is not a settled area of law in Australia, despite what some on this list would say. I'm sure the lawyers are making the best decisions they can with the precedents they have to work with. There is no doubt that overseas jurisdictions which share a common thread with Australian common law have had to enact new laws to try and secure protection for information of this type. I'm not arguing for any particular licencing outcome. If you want to have that discussion, I'm sure you can find someone who feels more strongly on the issue than I do. Ian. _______________________________________________ Talk-au mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-au
