----- Original Message ----- From: "Frederik Ramm" <frede...@remote.org> To: "David Groom" <revi...@pacific-rim.net>; "Licensing and other legal discussions." <legal-t...@openstreetmap.org> Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 2:35 PM Subject: Re: [OSM-legal-talk] Licence termination
> > Hi, > > David Groom wrote: >> From this I infer that, unless a "Person" is in breach of the Terms of >> the licence, we give them the right to access the OSM database under the >> terms of the licence as it was at the time they first started to use the >> database. > > I think you are mixing up the terms "database" and "database". It's easy > to do because they are so similar ,-) > > 1. A "database" is a collection of independent works, data or other > materials arranged in a systematic or methodical way and individually > accessible by electronic or other means. > > 2. A "database", on the other hand, is a machine which you can access > using specific queries to retrieve data. > > If we terminate the license, this does not mean that anyone who has > downloaded our database (1st definition) must now play to other rules. The > license that was valid when they downloaded the database will continue ad > infinitum for that downloaded database. > > Access to our database (2nd definition), however, can be governed by any > rules we like, and we can change them as we see fit. > Ok. I understand the difference between (1) and (2) You see I can quite understand that if we didn't allow direct access to the data via the servers, but simply gave out copies of the data on CD, or just made available planet dumps, then the licence which existed at the time the CD was distributed, or the planet dump was downloaded applies only to that copy, and not to further copies. Use of any further copies would be governed by the terms of the licence in force at that time. My issue becomes where we allow access to the data directly on the server Lets say I write an ap that directly accesses the OSM data [the "database" as defined in definition (1)] which just happens to be stored on OSM servers [the "database" as defined in definition (2)] . The first time I access the database definition (1), am I not being granted a non-terminable right to continue to access it under the terms existing when I first accessed it? David > Bye > Frederik > > > _______________________________________________ legal-talk mailing list legal-t...@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/legal-talk
