Can I use OSM in software that is password protected?

The use of OSM is governed by a license. This license - currently CC-BY-SA 2.0 - is the same for everyone, and exceptions cannot be made. OSM data can be used free of charge, and you cannot buy more freedom than the license grants you anyway.

When working with OSM data, you may have to pay other people for goods and services - some for granting you Internet access, some for operating your server, maybe someone to install software for you or help you perform a task - but you never pay for the right to use OSM data; that right always comes free of charge.

The license mandates that any product derived from OSM's data must also have the CC-BY-SA 2.0 license. In most cases, this will not affect the software you make, but whatever your users do with that software. For example, if you have a password-protected web portal that allows people to select an area from OSM and print it, then we don't care about your software - but the PDFs or printouts need to be CC-BY-SA licensed.

See our Legal FAQ for more information.

Note that any mention of "the right to use OSM data" concerns the raw data, i.e. when you download a Planet File. If your program, however, makes use of our server capacity and bandwidth by downloading ready-made map tiles, then you must adhere to the Tile usage policy. For example, you would not be permitted to distribute software that mass-downloads tiles from our tile server. We can make intellectual property available for free, but we cannot make bandwidth and CPU available for free as these are limited. If your application requires a lot of ready-made tiles, then you ought to set up your own tile server or buy these services from someone.