OpenStreetMap license change progress

May I see your license please?

This is an update and summary of the OpenStreetMap license upgrade process from CCBYSA to ODbL. It includes a five-minute process to bring yourself up to speed if you have not heard of the OpenStreetMap license upgrade before.

The OpenStreetMap license change process took another tiny step forward today. From today, new contributors to OpenStreetMap are asked to agree to license their contributions as ODbL anticipating the license change, and CCBYSA for the transitional period. Previous OSM contributors only had to agree to contribute under CCBYSA. This is an important and positive step because new contributors are now informed of the anticipated license change right from the start. And it allows them to contribute to OSM during the transition period as well.

The license change is a good thing. I'm looking forward to it being finished though, as it seems to have been going on forever. If you have not been previously aware of the license change, my summary is this:

• ccbysa is a great license for creative works and a great concept for data
• Creative Commons told us that ccbysa is not intended for data after we started using it
• Open Knowledge Foundation created the ODbL for data, and identical to ccbysa in concept
• volunteers from OSM have been going through the steps to transition to a new license for some time now

Some folks don't like some aspects of the proposed license. They are participating in the license process and will be free to not adopt the new license.

Some folks are tired of what seems like periodic, tedious discussion of arcane legal gobbledygook. They are free to learn as much or little about the issues and participate in the degree they choose.

If you've not heard of the license change before, I think that you should be informed of the issues and choose your desired level of participation in the discussion. I recommend this highly simplified process. It should take less than five minutes:

1. have a look at the ccbysa summary http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
2. have a look at the ODbL summary http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/summary/
3. decide that the licenses are close enough for you,
4. when the license change process asks you to accept the ODbL in a few weeks or months, agree to do so.
5. and keep mapping.

You might want to inform yourself further regarding the issues around the license upgrade. If you can't just accept that the licenses are close enough for you based on the summaries, follow the links below for more details and discussion. But that will extend beyond the five minute process recommended above.

Additional background

1. http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/We_Are_Changing_The_License
2. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/Use_Cases
3. http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/File:License_Proposal.pdf
4. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/Why_You_Should_Vote...
5. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Data_License/Why_You_Should_Vote...

Credits

NWT license photo is licensed CCBYSA by woody1778a on Flickr