On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 9:51 AM, Nick Whitelegg <nick.whitel...@solent.ac.uk> wrote: > On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 10:36 AM, Richard Fairhurst <rich...@systemed.net> > wrote: >>Please bear in mind that, even if we wanted to offer free tiles to every >>commercial app in the world, our hosts would not permit us to do so. [ ... ] > Absolutely. This may be a rather controversial opinion, but would it maybe > be a good idea to offer "Qt like licencing" for use of the OSM tile server?
Having the OSMF provide commercial tiles is a bad idea. It would: - reduce services available to the community - expose the project to additional risk - hurt the community by competing against it Why do I think that having the OSMF provide commercial tiles is such a bad idea? Ultimately, the OSMF should be doing the things that the OSM community want to have done, but that the community can't do as individuals. If the community were to insist that OSMF should provide commercial tiles, the OSMF could absolutely do so. Hosting and hardware would have to be purchased and they would have to sort out api keys and probably a few other tech issues. they could, but they shouldn't. Having OSMF provide commercial tiles is a bad idea. I think that having OSMF provide commercial tiles would be bad for the OSM community. Providing commercial tiles would take time away from everything else OSMF currently does. The community / commercial division is likely to lead to a priority being given to the commercial side; after all "we have to serve our paying customers first or they'll sue us". It would also be possible to grow OSMF to include a "commercial arm" of the foundation leaving the current OSMF the same size, and the current services intact. That might hurt the OSMF not-for-profit status and also discourage donations by way of confusion, "Is my donation going to the not-for-profit or to the commercial wing?" Further, if OSMF were expanded to include a commercial wing, that commercial wing would be competing with those in the OpenStreetMap community who already offer commercial tiles. The OSMF should not be competing against the OSM community. Commercial tile consumers have options available. They can operate their own tile servers. They can purchase commercial tiles from commercial tile vendors. They can render in the client from vectors. Providing commercial tiles is not a problem that the OSMF should try to solve. Best regards, Richard _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
