OpenStreetMap looks to relocate to EU due to Brexit limitations

Oh this is about the &quot;Database Rights&quot;.<p>In essence, EU, UK and the USA has different opinion on the ownership status and rights of databases.<p>EU: Databases are similar to other copyrightable works, thus you can&#x27;t simply copy someones database.<p>UK: Like EU but with different flavour.<p>USA: There&#x27;s no such things as database rights.<p>Apparently, although the positions of UK and EU are similar, since UK is no longer in the EU and there&#x27;s no mutual agreement on how to make things work those who want to have their databases protected by the law need to move to the jurisdiction that fits their needs and in the case of OpenStreetMap that would be EU.<p>fun fact: The last time the database rights was a hot topic, it was about Google copying the database of a small company that specialises in building a database of net worth of celebrities.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24105465" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24105465</a>

This is partly about &quot;mutual recognition of database rights&quot;: &quot;since Brexit, any database made on or after 1 January 2021 in the UK will not be protected in the EU, and vice versa&quot;.<p>It&#x27;s not something most people need to worry about, but I expect OpenStreetMap won&#x27;t be the only company affected by that.

&gt; The increased importance of the EU in matters of tech regulation also played a role<p>check the node density of OSM [0]. notice a pattern?<p>on a forward looking basis pre-empting any regulatory risk would seem quite a weighty factor. being located in the jurisdiction that reflects the majority of their user base is not a silver bullet but probably shields them from diverging UK&#x2F;EU rules<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tyrasd.github.io&#x2F;osm-node-density&#x2F;#2&#x2F;43.8&#x2F;26.4&#x2F;latest,places" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;tyrasd.github.io&#x2F;osm-node-density&#x2F;#2&#x2F;43.8&#x2F;26.4&#x2F;lates...</a>

Original mailing list post<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;osmf-talk&#x2F;2021-June&#x2F;007860.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;osmf-talk&#x2F;2021-Jun...</a>

&gt; The move may still not happen if the foundation can’t find a suitable country to relocate to. Ireland is out, because of a requirement for directors to be residents; France too, because of the difficulty in guaranteeing English-language services.<p>So moving to the EU solves some problems but adds more?

I don’t understand the concern about database rights. OpenStreetMap is open (you can download it from <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;planet.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;planet.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;</a>), so why would they be concerned about copyrights?

I can&#x27;t imagine this is much more than a set of paper work exercises. It would have no meaningful effect on anyone who uses or works for OpenStreetMap, other than perhaps if someone had a dastardly plan to copy their database and sell it for their own purposes.

It&#x27;s not really clear to me what the problem is. Doesn&#x27;t the Open Database License applies everywhere, brexit or not? I never thought that where an &quot;open source&quot; project is physically located as any impact on the license it uses.

This seems a poor reason for moving your headquarters.<p>A. In most jurisdictions, you can&#x27;t copyright facts (nor should you be able to, IMO).<p>B. I can&#x27;t see why OpenStreetmap has to rely on copyright.<p>C. OSM data is provided by the public. It shouldn&#x27;t be any kind of &quot;property&quot;.