Talk:Pros and cons of contributing data public domain

From OpenStreetMap Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

merge with 'Optional public domain licensing'

We've got a merge label on the page there, for merging with "Optional public domain licensing" page

I think that page is full of crap, but the title is good, and it's well linked, so I'm thinking the content of this 'Pros and cons of contributing data public domain' page could be moved to form the bulk of the page contents on the simpler title 'Optional public domain licensing'. See Talk:Optional public domain licensing

-- Harry Wood (talk) 11:54, 30 July 2015 (UTC)

removing the "PD isn't simple" paragraph

I think that "PD isn't simple, copyright varies by jurisdiction, PD doesn't even exist in some jurisdictions so you still have to come up with copyright licenses(or copyright waivers) that are suited for a specific jurisdiction just to give the data away." is a sentence that can be applied to any license. ODBl included. I think that it is not fair to put that on the "Practical reasons against PD". Kresp0 (talk) 11:02, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

I agree. The sentence is technically correct. In fact here in the UK technically PD doesn't exist as legal thing (and confusingly, outside of open licensing circles, the phrase is actually is used to mean something slightly different) however this detail is not a particularly useful thing to discuss. Releasing data without copyright is technically not quite as straightforward as labelling it PD, however...
I tend to think this is really just a useless bit of legal trivia people throw into a conversation to make themselves sound knowledgeable (or more cynically they may do so in order to de-rail a discussion about releasing something). The truth is, for all practical intents and purposes, labelling something "PD" does the job. If you don't think so, then you should use "CC0", a legal text crafted to achieve the same thing in various jurisdictions. Or you should use "WTFPL", or the less foul-mouthed "Unlicense". But guess what? If you think one of these is better than the other... well there's no share-alike requirement. Just switch it! (switch it as you prefer when using it, and move along)
-- Harry Wood (talk) 10:24, 23 October 2016 (UTC)