Hi!
Steve Chilton schrieb:
> Having said all that, my real point is that I
> know a lot of "traditional" cartographers (some in a commercial
> environment and some not) and have observed an actual reluctance to
> consider using OSM data. This might be surprising given that OSM has
> always said "OpenStreetMap creates and provides free geographic data
> such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started
> because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or
> technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using
> them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways" [top of homepage].
> My perception is that there are two things that stop this: Firstly,
> there seems to be either a misunderstanding of what the licence
> currently means, or a feeling that it is not possible to work within
> it's current terms.
Thank you for bringing this up. It has been on the back of my mind that
OSM does not really live up to this mission statement on the top of the
front page. It is good (or rather it is sad, but confirmation) to hear
that there actually is reluctance among cartographers to use OSM data. I
have found the same doubts in some forums in the geocommunity.
The statement "The project was started because most maps you think of as
free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding
back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways"
describes very accurately the problem I have with the CC BY SA licence
(apart from insufficient protection against abuse):
I think of the OSM maps as free. But when I try to use them together
with other sources in a creative, productive and not even unexpected
way, I find myself bound by legal restrictions of the licence that
disallow these use cases. This would indicate to me one of two cases:
- The mission statement is wrong and needs to be changed to express the
uncompromising disapproval of any non-totally-free use
- The CC licence fails to provide the freedom of usage OSM was started
for and needs to be replaced or augmented
I believe/hope it was the latter and that is the reason why I approve
the change of the licence. I want those two lines to be true and I want
OSM to live up to them.
bye
Nop
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