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I find the distinction difficult to understand. The way I interpret the OSM license, the data is really not freely available to use in a commercial context exce

I find the distinction difficult to understand. The way I interpret the OSM license, the data is really not freely available to use in a commercial context except as a base layer. If you use the OSM data in combination with any other data sources you have to publish both the resulting dataset and any processing steps or algorithms used to produce the dataset. So that means you cannot combine OSM data with any dataset which cannot be released, and it also means any innovation you develop in processing the data cannot be protected. I can see why the license was chosen, clearly it's necessary to prevent Microsoft or Apple taking the data and closing it off for their use, but at the same time it seems to make most business models using the data unsustainable. It's a shame from a HN perspective, you'd hope open data would allow for the continual opportunity for the creation of startups to innovate on using the data, locking open competition in the same way that open software has done, but it doesn't seem to be working out that way. Most companies in the area seem to be creators and consumers of base layers, I don't see many doing anything with the geographical database. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the terms of the license.

Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
It’s more complex than that. OSM’s licence isn’t a direct parallel of one single software licence, but it has an LGPL-ish permissive aspect for making things from the data (“Produced Works”). OSM data is used a lot for routing (pretty much all bike navigation apart from Google’s uses OSM data) and increasingly for GIS-type analysis.
- Brakenshire 5y ago
  When I was looking at it, I got the impression a produced work was something like a t shirt with a map printed on it. Is that wrong? Or any idea where I could read about how the interpret that permission?
  - matkoniecz 5y ago
    > If you make a map from OpenStreetMap geodata and publish it, you may publish the map under any license you like. In ODbL parlance, this is known as a "Produced Work". https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Licence_and_Legal_FAQ https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Licence_and_Lega...
    - Brakenshire 5y ago
      But the second bullet point is: > However, if you have added to or enhanced our data in order to make the map, you must make those additions publicly available without charge So the produced work seems to be only a map, derived entirely from OSM data with no combination of data from other sources, except as a wholly separate layer. And any processing you do on the map has to be made available freely. It's totally unclear to me how you can make a technology business based on the geographical database. For instance, I can't see how you'd read that section and conclude that the bike routing engine mentioned before would be a produced work (the section starts with "If you make a map from OpenStreetMap geodata..."). And if it did the algorithms you used to produce it would have to be openly published and made available to competitors.
      - matkoniecz 5y ago
        > It's totally unclear to me how you can make a technology business based on the geographical database. Routing engine using pure OSM data can be fully proprietary and in case of using additional data it is enough to make that data available. There is no requirement to open processing tools. Google can make GoogleWithoutGoogleData Map app using OSM data and keep it fully proprietary. They could take OSM data for roads and land use and own for shops. Though if they would start merging OSM data and own they would need to publish own data. It would likely apply in case of taking traffic data and using OSM road geometries to process it. warning: I am not a lawyer.

Doctor_Fegg 5y ago

It’s more complex than that. OSM’s licence isn’t a direct parallel of one single software licence, but it has an LGPL-ish permissive aspect for making things from the data (“Produced Works”). OSM data is used a lot for routing (pretty much all bike navigation apart from Google’s uses OSM data) and increasingly for GIS-type analysis.

Brakenshire 5y ago
When I was looking at it, I got the impression a produced work was something like a t shirt with a map printed on it. Is that wrong? Or any idea where I could read about how the interpret that permission?
- matkoniecz 5y ago
  > If you make a map from OpenStreetMap geodata and publish it, you may publish the map under any license you like. In ODbL parlance, this is known as a "Produced Work". https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Licence_and_Legal_FAQ https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Licence_and_Lega...
  - Brakenshire 5y ago
    But the second bullet point is: > However, if you have added to or enhanced our data in order to make the map, you must make those additions publicly available without charge So the produced work seems to be only a map, derived entirely from OSM data with no combination of data from other sources, except as a wholly separate layer. And any processing you do on the map has to be made available freely. It's totally unclear to me how you can make a technology business based on the geographical database. For instance, I can't see how you'd read that section and conclude that the bike routing engine mentioned before would be a produced work (the section starts with "If you make a map from OpenStreetMap geodata..."). And if it did the algorithms you used to produce it would have to be openly published and made available to competitors.
    - matkoniecz 5y ago
      > It's totally unclear to me how you can make a technology business based on the geographical database. Routing engine using pure OSM data can be fully proprietary and in case of using additional data it is enough to make that data available. There is no requirement to open processing tools. Google can make GoogleWithoutGoogleData Map app using OSM data and keep it fully proprietary. They could take OSM data for roads and land use and own for shops. Though if they would start merging OSM data and own they would need to publish own data. It would likely apply in case of taking traffic data and using OSM road geometries to process it. warning: I am not a lawyer.