On 19 Jan 2009, at 17:27, Mikel Maron wrote:
Hi Peter
Yesterday we held the first meeting of the Licensing working group.
At the last Foundation Board meeting before the holidays, we
decided to convene a working group to expedite the final process of
moving OSM to the new license. In attendance were Steve Coast and
myself from the Board, Grant Slater from the technical team, and
Jordan Hatcher, the lawyer who has been working on the ODL.
> I had not heard of this working group before. Could you clarify
who is on it, what is the brief for the group and when it was
formed? Has Steve's role in this changed or is he still in charge of
> the drafting process?
Well pretty much what I said. We decided to form a working group at
the last Foundation Board meeting to help usher the new license into
existance and adoption. Steve, Grant and myself are on the working
group. Jordan Hatcher was invited to the group due to his
involvement in the ODL. Steve is chair of the group.
Possibly you could update timeline article to explain clearly how this
license will be implemented, and then we can assist you with that
process.
Following this first version, a community of users and legal
experts around the license will be developed to generate public
comment and review, and work on refinements to the license. As the
ODL evolves, OSM will be able to take on new revisions without the
large task of getting re-licensing permission from our contributors.
> To be clear. You saying that the full license text will only be
available for review by the community 'after' it has been released
to the full user base for acceptance? If so then it would seem that
> the next we will see of the license will be a copy in our inbox
and a request to sign it or leave the project and have our data
removed from the database? If this is the case then it puts a huge
> responsibility on the board to get it right first time. If you do
get it right then that's great. If not then we are all in a bit of
mess are we not? Could you say who is 'in the loop' on the license
> drafting process and has seen each of the recent updates? Have any
key external users or bulk data providers seen a recent draft of the
license and given their support? What if a major end
> user (Flickr) or major data provided (AND) has a problem with it?
We will publish the license as soon as its gone through these final
steps of legal review. That will precede the actual process of
license adoption. We're not sure of the exact time frame yet, to be
discussed this week.
I am pleased that we will see the license prior to actual adoption. I
think this will be very helpful.
There's no loop. The license has been in the hands of lawyers,
clarifying legal details.
To be clear, I would expect that a number of people within OSM and the
Foundation would review each draft of the license as produced by the
lawyers. Can you say who sees each draft of the license who can
confirm that it is heading in the right direction.
> I understand from the above that the license will include the
provision for an organisation to change the license subsequent to
its agreement. It seems a very sensible provision but means we will
> be placing considerable trust in that organisation. Will this be
the OSMF or a different organisation, if so then which one? If it is
the Foundation then we urgently need to address
> the deficiencies in the articles of association which current give
far to much control to one person. If it is another organisation
then I assume you have thoroughly checked it out.
This is under discussion, but have to reserve more details for the
moment. It is likely not the Foundation.
This core issue still seems to be up in the air which is unfortunate.
The organisation, if it is not the Foundation, needs to be highly
trusted to make only suitable changes over the long term and maintain
the viral elements of the license. I suggest that the Foundation
should be the host unless there is an obvious alternative stable
alternative.
If the foundation was the host, then we would need to appoint some
really top-notch trustees to agree to any changes to the license, but
I think we could now attract them. This would require changes to the
articles of assoiciation, and possibly require the foundation to gain
charity status, but that is very possible and could happen in the next
few months. I would be happy to advice you on this.
So what's next? A technical team meeting will be held this week to
discuss the technical implementation. Next week we will hold
another licensing working group meeting, where we'll produced the
final integrated plan of license and technical process, and
timeline for moving to the new license. We'll have another update
following next week's meeting.
I'm here to answer any questions.
> Various questions have been asked on this list over the past few
months; I won't repeat them, but I am sure people would welcome some
answers. If they are not addressed by the new l
> license then it seems likely that they will be raised immediately
afterwards which will be more messy and may result in lower uptake.
We understand the license won't be perfect when it's first released.
But we must move forward. With everyone's help, refinements to the
license for the next draft will address this questions.
Can we not help on this draft and there does still seem to be a lot to
do? Our lawyer should be able to review the license with a 48 hours
response time against the Use Cases. We would be happy to pay for this
and make the results available to the community.
> Prior to release do update the wiki pages that relate to the new
license? I have added a new category 'Open Data Licence' to make it
easier to locate these pages. I suggest that in particular
> you note on the Use Cases page which ones the license will allow
and will not allow. This will make it easier for end users to
confirm that it is suitable for their needs.
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Category:Open_Data_Licence
There will be thorough communications every step of the way. Might
ask for some help from everyone on the wiki though, as there will be
quite a lot to update there.
I would be happy to help.
> I wish the Foundation success in this important change.
Thank you!
And you!
Peter
Mikel
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