[od-discuss] UK OGL Compliant?

Wed Oct 19 09:54:05 UTC 2011

Hi Andrew,

In fact, unfortunately, in my opinion is that it is *not* compliant
[1]. Specifically these additional restriction clauses are
problematic:

<quote>
* ensure that you do not use the Information in a way that suggests
any official status or that the Information Provider endorses you or
your use of the Information;

* ensure that you do not mislead others or misrepresent the
Information or its source;

* ensure that your use of the Information does not breach the Data
Protection Act 1998 or the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC
Directive) Regulations 2003.
</quote>

The first of these, may be ok (it's a pseudo-integrity clause) though
I worry about interaction with share-alike (and worry about how easy
to interpret it is).

The second of these is definitely problematic as it is additional
requirement that would probably be problematic with share-alike or
similar. I also think is a clause that creates a lot of uncertainty
(I'm a newspaper and use government data to write a news story. Can
the government accues me or misleading or misrepresenting the source
and hence void my license). It also seems one could achieve the intent
of this clause through other means -- simple notification, clear
statement about the mistake etc.

The last item adds a completely new requirement which again leads to
problematic interaction with other licenses. Also, I wonder why this
needs to be in the license. Surely breaching that act is an offence in
itself -- in which case why add to the license?

Rufus

[1]: http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/2011-March/000032.html

On 18 October 2011 16:27, Andrew Stott <andrew.stott at dirdigeng.com> wrote:
> Herb
>
> As I recall the general view was that the UK OGL was compliant, but no-one
> had actually taken through the process to get it listed.
>
> Andrew Stott
> ________________________________
> From: od-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org
> [mailto:od-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Herb Lainchbury
> Sent: 18 October 2011 16:15
> To: od-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> Subject: [od-discuss] UK OGL Compliant?
>
> Hi All,
> I have looked through the archives for an answer to this question but
> haven't seen anything.
> I am interested in the UK Open Government
> License http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/, and
> I think it conforms but it doesn't appear to be listed anywhere on
> the opendefinition.org site.
> Does anyone know if this has been discussed before?  Am I missing something?
> Thanks.
> --
> Herb Lainchbury
> Founder, OpenDataBC (Canada)
> _______________________________________________
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> od-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/od-discuss
>
>

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