[matthewmorgan]

I don't understand the problem either. If they're worried someone in the EU is going to clone their database, moving there just means someone in the UK can now do it. And Americans have apparently been free to do it from the start.

[microtonal]

The EU is a much larger market than the UK. If you are an international company that cloned their database, not offering your product in the UK because you could be sued is a loss. However, not being able to offer your product in the EU is a much bigger loss. So, such companies are much more likely to comply with the license if OpenStreetMap is protected by EU laws than by UK laws.

[matthewmorgan]

The EU is far from being a single market as far as services are concerned