OSMF updates/2021-08/Licensing Working Group Overview

Licensing Working Group, Contact/Join

Licensing matters relating to using our geodata, (our end user license, community guidelines, License FAQ)

Licensing matters relating creating our geodata, (contributor terms, imports, using aerial imagery ...)

Legal matters relating to responsibility and risk, (trademarks, safe harbour, privacy, child protection, ...)

Minutes: Licensing Working Group

• Please note that the list below covers mostly topics discussed during Licensing Working Group (LWG) meetings, from August 2020 to August 2021.
• For some of the topics below there might be updates which have not been mentioned during meetings.
• Many enquiries are replied/resolved via email only and do not arise as topics during meetings.

Draft Attribution guidelines

On June 2021 the board adopted the proposed attribution guidelines.

Timeline

• 2018-11 The Licensing Working Group (LWG) starts working on a draft attribution guideline.
• 2019 LWG members solicited feedback from attendants of the State of the Map US conference and at the international State of the Map conference in Heidelberg.
• 2019-08 and 09. The August 2019 version became available to the community (osmf-talk message) and is added to the OSM wiki.
• 2020-01 The version with changes due to the feedback from the State of the Map US conference and State of the Map 2019 was made available to the board.
• 2020-02
  • The LWG updated the document based on input from the board, shared the updated version with the board and notified it that it would be starting another round of public feedback to hopefully conclude the matter.
  • The February 2020 LWG version became available to the community on the OSM wiki.
• 2020-06 The OSMF board
  • modified the draft and presented the updated version during the 2020-06 board meeting.
  • had a meeting with Corporate Member representatives on the Advisory Board on attribution.
• 2020-10 The board had meetings with Corporate Member representatives on the Advisory Board and with the LWG. The board version was subsequently modified.
• 2020-12 Board meeting decisions to:
  • Publish the current board draft after giving the Licensing Working Group (LWG) a heads up.
  • Ask LWG to summarise the points they still consider open from the comments on the board document and ask Dermot McNally (LWG member), who has no conflict of interest, to present that report at the next LWG meeting.
  • Rory McCann (Board) to work with external counsel to try to find the solutions to these issues that are most favourable to us.
• 2021-01 The LWG was working on the requested document ("gap list") summarising the points they still considered open on the board version of the attribution guidelines.
• 2021-02 The LWG sent the "gap list" document to the board.
• 2021-03 The board contacted Kyle Mitchell (Intellectual Property lawyer suggested by Allen Gunn, who has been the external facilitator of some of the past board face-to-face meetings) for external legal advice on the draft attribution guidelines. The initial email was approved by Dermot McNally (Licensing Working Group) and included the board draft of the attribution guidelines and a list of questions by the board and the LWG.
• 2021-04 Kyle Mitchell responded.
• 2021-05 The board forwards Kyle Mitchell's response to the LWG and answers regarding the "gap list" points.
• 2021-06-01 LWG and Board online discussion. Decisions and next steps here.
• 2021-06-11 Preparations for vote on Attribution Guidelines (board chat)
• 2021-06-12 Publication of current draft v0.9 and request for feedback from the community and the membership.

LWG: Attribution guidance related minutes

• 2021: Jan, Feb: Attribution guidelines gap list and board status update on outside counsel, May, Jun, Jul: Publishing the Attribution Guidelines
• 2020: Jan (“Twitter attribution thread”), Feb, Mar, Apr, Jul, Aug, Oct, Nov
• 2019: Jan, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
• 2018: Dec

Board attribution guideline related minutes

• 2021: Jan Attribution guidelines update, Feb 12 (mid month board chat), Apr 09 Kyle Mitchell's response regarding attribution guidelines and ODbL, Apr 16 Attribution guidelines (dedicated chat), [[Board/Minutes/2021-05#Draft_attribution_guidelines|May]
• 2020: Jan Attribution and lack thereof, Apr Update on LWG's rewrite of attribution policy, May Status of Attribution policy, Status of Facebook attribution issue on mobile, Jun Status, Meeting with Corporate Members of the Advisory Board on attribution, Oct screen-to-screen discussion, update, Nov update 1, update 2, Dec update (informal board chat), update (public board meeting).
• 2019 Oct Attribution by Facebook.

Board attribution guideline related circular

• 2020-03-26 Circular 2021/Res11: Authorise Allan to send attribution guideline letter to Intellectual Property lawyer.

Other attribution guideline related minutes

• 2020-12-04 Board and LWG meeting (Dermot McNally) on draft attribution guidelines - The meeting was set-up in short time. The LWG was invited but only Dermot McNally could participate in such short notice.
• 2020-10-15 Board and LWG meeting on draft attribution guidelines
• 2020-10-09 Board and AB Corporate Members representatives meeting
• 2020-10-02 Session Make progress on attribution guidelines and enforcement, during board screen-to-screen October meeting
• 2020-06-22 Board and Advisory Board Corporate Member representatives meeting

OSMF members' related discussions on the osmf-talk* mailing list:

• Attribution guideline status update: 2019 Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
• Attribution: board letter to Facebook: 2019 Oct, Nov

* osmf-talk is the mailing list for OpenStreetMap Foundation members (Join the Foundation). All past messages are available here.

Trademarks related

Whenever you use the OpenStreetMap marks (e.g. logos, "State of the Map") regardless of why you are allowed to use the marks, you must comply with the requirements in the Trademark Policy (Trademark Policy FAQ).

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)

OSMF is currently talking with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and is working on a draft agreement regarding granting rights for the use of OSM marks. 2021-06 (LWG minutes) 2021-05 (LWG minutes) 2021-04 (LWG minutes) 2021-03 (LWG minutes) 2021-02 board chat, public board meeting and the board approved £1800 for consultation by Lawdit on the HOT trademark grant 2021-01-19 OSMF board and HOT board members meeting (Participants: A. R. McCann (OSMF board) and Abelshausen (HOT board)) 2021-01-14 OSMF board and HOT board members meeting. 2020-06-24 OSMF board and HOT board members meeting.

OpenHistoricalMap (OHM) - approval of co-existence agreement by OSMF board

The OSMF board has approved on 2021-04 the co-existence agreement with Jeff Meyer of OpenHistoricalMap. LWG minutes: 2021-04, 2021-03, 2021-02, 2021-01, 2020-12 OpenHistoricalMap vs OpenHistoryMap trademark issues

GeOsm - approval of trademark licence agreement by OSMF board

The OSMF board has approved on 2021-03 the trademark licence agreement (reviewed by Kathleen Lu, LWG) with GeOSM. Background by Jean-Marc Liotier (OSMF board) - initially published as a diary entry: In December 2020 the Licensing Working Group (LWG) received an inquiry regarding GeOsm and its trademark status. As GeOsm contains “OSM” which is a trademark of the OpenStreetMap Foundation, it comes under purview of our licensing policy. This was a topic of the January 2021 LWG meeting and Kathleen Lu (LWG) reached out to Willy Franck Sob, the main operator of GeOsm, to study its application. GeOsm is a portal for distributing free geographic data. Its goal is to make OpenStreetMap data and other open data more easily accessible, especially to users in developing countries. A Cameroonian-led project, it already offers national data for 21 African countries - but it has potential for wider horizons. Considering the compatibility of GeOsm’s ethos with OpenStreetMap, the LWG suggested that the OSMF should come to an agreement with GeOsm. Within that framework, Jean-Marc Liotier (Board Member) drafted an agreement (see annexed PDF) to define under what conditions the OSMF will permit the GeOsm trademark. Most of the clauses are typical generic points of a trademark licence agreement, but some are specific to OpenStreetMap and will interest our members most: The GeOsm trademark shall only be used as the brand for distributing geographic data under open data licenses as defined by the Open Knowledge Foundation’s Open Definition published at http://www.opendefinition.org/okd/ A major part of the data distributed by the GeOsm must originate from OpenStreetMap. Any code for the GeOsm site used as a point of distribution must be published under an open source license according to the Open Source Definition published by the Open Source Initiative. Any code necessary for converting OpenStreetMap data to the format consumed by the software of the site used as a point of distribution must be published under an open source license according to the Open Source Definition published by the Open Source Initiative. No proprietary data shall be distributed by GeOsm. So, on top of Willy Franck’s communicative enthusiasm about OpenStreetMap in the African context, this trademark license gives the OSMF a solid guarantee that its brand will not be tainted by diverging interests. Beyond these defensive measures, this formal agreement is also a nod to a community-led African initiative - free software developed by African leaders is not yet a common occurence, and the OSMF looks forward to GeOsm developing original approaches to bring OpenStreetMap data to new audiences and make them participants. The OSMF took advantage of Jean-Marc’s presence in Cameroon to participate in a formal signing ceremony, with representatives of the Ministry of Local Development and Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in attendance. They confirmed the strong interest of their government in collaborative approaches to geographic data and the technological appropriation of geographical information systems through local initiatives. LWG minutes: 2021-03, 2021-02, 2021-01, 2020-12

OpenSnowMap - approval of trademark grandfathering application by OSMF board

The OSMF board has approved on 2021-07 the grandfathering application by Yves Cainaud for Opensnowmap.org. Background: The OSMF board received a trademark use request by Yves Cainaud for Opensnowmap.org. The project appears to have started before the trademark guidelines were in place. The board consulted the Licensing Working Group (LWG), which had no objection. Template for project licence and domain grandfathering applications.

Board minutes: 2021-07 LWG minutes: 2021-07 Guidance on approach for Opensnowmap.org paperwork, 2021-04 OpenSnowMap trademark inquiry

OpenBusinessMap - signed co-existence agreement

Co-existence agreement signed on 2020-12 by Ploetz + Zeller GmbH regarding OpenBusinessMap. LWG minutes: 2021-01, 2020-11 Update & funds allocation, 2020-10

OpenFricheMap - dropped application for trademark registration

Application for trademark registration of "OpenFricheMap" by Safer was opposed by OSMF. Goods/services associated with the mark included cartographic services. After contact, the application was dropped and Safer will work together with OSM France. LWG minutes: 2020-08, 2020-04

State of the Map Industry conference - will refrain from using the name in the future

A conference called "State of the Map Industry" took place in 2021. After contact by the LWG, they will refrain from using the name in the future and hope that OSMF can join them at an event in the future. LWG minutes: 2021-06, 2021-05

OSM marks - Japan, Mexico, Philippines, United States

Japan - Registration of marks by OpenStreetMap Foundation Japan. The registered marks are being transferred to the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Related minutes: 2021-01 Japan Trademark transfer and 2020-08 Mexico, Philippines, United States updates on 2020-08

Privacy policy

On 2020-10 the Operations Working Group asked for an update of privacy policy, due to the: use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) for user images - the current AWS contract includes standard contractual clauses - and use of a commercial content delivery network for tiles (Fastly), as they are operating as a data processor for us. LWG minutes: 2021: 2021-01, 2021-02, 2021-03, 2021-04,2021-05, 2021-06 2020: 2020-10 Use of commercial CDN / Privacy Policy update, 2020-12 Reportage: Privacy policy update

Attribution issues

Moovit
Moovit committed to improve OSM attribution in their app (attribution was ok on their website) - the plan was for the app attribution to be visible in the September 2020 app release. LWG minutes: 2020 Aug, Sep, Oct (Reportage and dedicated topic)

LWG internal

Adopted Conflict of Interest (CoI) policy
The LWG has written and adopted (2021-04) the following LWG Conflict of Interest (CoI) policy, based on the Conflict of Interest policy of the OSMF board. LWG minutes: 2021-01, 2021-02 Need to update LWG-specific membership requirements and Conflict of Interest (CoI) policy on wiki, 2021-03, 2021-04

Formalised process to join the working group
The LWG has formalised the process to join the working group. LWG minutes: 2021-01, 2021-02 Need to update LWG-specific membership requirements and Conflict of Interest (CoI) policy on wiki

Licensing Working Group granted signing authority for academic use requests The Licensing Working Group (LWG) receives frequent requests from academics to use OSM derived figures in academic papers. The requests are not going beyond what is already granted through the license, but publishers, such as PLOS, frequently require explicit approval. This is pretty standard, and in line with our mission of use of open data. The board has granted:

• to the Licensing Working Group members signing authority for academic use requests such as this example of a permission form from PLOS,
• to Dorothea Kazazi the ability to execute with the Secretary's signature on the forms.

Previously only board members could sign such documents.

Nominated people to the Software Dispute Resolution Panel The OSMF board had proposed the creation of a software dispute resolution panel that will -on request- seek to resolve disputes that arise over features of the iD editor, the main editor on www.openstreetmap.org. Other OSM-related software products may also use this panel if they choose to opt-in. The board had asked the Working Groups to nominate people. On January 29th 2021 the OSMF Board appointed five nominees. For more information read the section "Created - Software dispute resolution panel" on the main page of the August 2021 updates.

LWG minutes:
2020-12

Communications: Switched to video meetings and created channel on Signal
In 2020-12 the LWG replaced the audio meetings using Mumble with videomeetings using an OSMF BigBlueButton videoroom. Related: 2020-11 Switch to BigBlueButton? In 2021-07 the LWG created a chat channel on Signal. Related: 2021-07 Asynchronous chat channel for LWG

LWG membership changes and applications

LWG Membership applications LWG Membership application by Tom Hummel (accepted). Minutes: 2021-02, 2021-03, 2021-04, 2021-05, 2021-06 Welcome LWG Membership application by Séverin Ménard (not accepted). Minutes: 2021-03, 2021-04, 2021-05 LWG membership updates Dermot McNally since 2020-11 is again regularly attending the LWG meetings and currently acts as the LWG chairperson while Kathleen Lu is on leave (till November 2021). Guillaume Rischard (OSMF Board) is the liaison of the board with LWG and is regularly attending the LWG meetings. Kathleen Lu became the new LWG chairperson. Simon Poole (LWG chairperson) stepped down on November 2020.

Discussions about OTRS access

OTRS (originally Open-Source Ticket Request System) is an issue/ticket tracker used by several OSMF Working Groups. The LWG uses it, for example, to handle email enquiries received on the email address legal-questions@osmfoundation.org. Please note that the OSMF Operations Working Group is looking for alternatives to OTRS 6 as new versions of OTRS are no longer open source. LWG minutes: 2021-03, 2021-04, 2021-07

Discussions about jandover preparations due to members stepping down or going on leave
Kathleen (new LWG Chairperson) going on leave, 2021 May, Jun, Jul: Congratulations Handover from Simon Poole (LWG Chairperson) who stepped down in November 2020 2020-08, 2020-09 ,2020-10

Other topics discussed during LWG meetings, August 2020 to August 2021

2021-07 gdpr_openstreepmap.org_tsfkd@*****.*** issue resolved? 2021-07 Submitted to copyright report: Commisso AG, Convenience Shop, request for deletion due to no longer being up-to-date 2021-04 Question sent to legal list about Argentina data Argentina has a law for open access to government data (public and free) and there is government data licenced under CCBY. An Argentinian OSM community member thought that the Argentinian law takes precedence over the CCBY licence and restrictions of CCBY do not apply, thus they do not need the CCBY waiver signed by a government office to use data in OSM. They had sent a translation of the law to the LWG. 2021-06 OSM tileset hosted by a 3rd party Question regarding "Right to be Forgotten" case 2021-06, 2021-05 2020-08 Queensland CC BY 4.0 Permission, 2020-10 Reportage and 2021-01 Response from Australia map.solutions Resources about legal literature and OpenStreetMap 2020-09 ODbL weaknesses 2020-09 BREXIT 2020-08 Domains 2021-07 Data Act meeting Topics during LWG meetings requested to not be minuted: 2021-08, 2021-07, 2020-12 (does not include topics which were minuted but some of the minutes redacted after request) 2021-07 Has our trademark was converted to an UK trademark, and is the EU one is still valid? 2021-07 License waiver and permission templates point to Google Drive - Request to move the files or content to the wiki 2021-05 Licensing Working Group granted signing authority for academic use requests. Previously only Board members could sign such documents. 2020-12 Introductions of guests Edward Bainton and Mateusz Konieczny 2020-11 Update re Dorothea?