OpenStreetMap’s point of no return

“Back in 2008, LWN reported on the OpenStreetMap project and its
plan to change the licensing of its map database. This change was
controversial, to say the least, but the project as a whole
appeared to be determined to press forward with it. At the
beginning of 2011, the license change has not yet happened. But it
has now been determined that April 1 of this year will be an
important milestone date in this process. This could be interesting
to watch, as the project is still not entirely sure of what it is
changing to.

“The new license – the Open Database License (ODBL) – is well
understood. The ODBL is an attempt to stretch European-style
database rights to the point where they cover the database
worldwide. To that end, the ODBL is explicitly written as a
contract – a crucial difference from most free licenses, which try
to avoid contract law entirely. The ODBL must take this approach
because the OpenStreetMap database, being primarily factual in
nature, is not easily covered by copyright. A license which relied
strictly upon copyright law would risk being unenforceable in much
of the world.”

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