[od-discuss] City of Calgary Open Data License Approval Request

Mon Mar 18 17:08:45 UTC 2013

+1 to all Andrew says.

One broader comment: the document may be largely fine as a ToU for a
website but that's out of scope for compliance with
http://opendefinition.org/okd

Bundling ToU with data permissions may indirectly lead to some of the
problems Andrew pointed out. One path forward would be to unbundle -- put
whatever you need to in the ToU with respect to use of the site/service,
but grant permission to use the data under a standard, already approved
license.

Mike

On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 9:06 AM, Andrew Stott <andrew.stott at dirdigeng.com>wrote:

> Walter****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks for posting to this list.****
>
> ** **
>
> A prior question is why you consider that a special licence for the City
> of Calgary is necessary and why you consider that it is not possible to use
> an established open licence – such as Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
> [1][2].  While the effect on people only using City of Calgary data may not
> be significant the combination of datasets from different jurisdictions
> become difficult if each jurisdiction uses its own licence.****
>
> ** **
>
> On the detail of the text I had the following comments from the “open”
> point of view:****
>
> ** **
>
> (1) “You will be fully responsible for any consequences resulting from any
> use of the Data” is unusual.  While it is acceptable and usual to limit the
> liability of the City from any use of the data, this clause seems to
> require that the user of the data cannot similarly limit their liability
> from downstream uses of the data by somebody else.  For instance, if the
> City releases a list of points of interest including ATMs, and a developer
> uses these to do a “Find My Nearest ATM” application, and someone uses the
> application to find an ATM where they are mugged it would seem that the
> developer is required to be liable to the victim. This may implicitly put a
> very severe limit on what can be done with the data, and that would not be
> Open.****
>
> ** **
>
> (2)  “any lawful Use” is problematical in all sorts of ways – for instance
> which laws apply?  If someone uses the data in another jurisdiction in a
> way which is unlawful in Calgary, or in a way which is unlawful in their
> own jurisdiction but lawful in Calgary, are they entitled to use the
> licence?  Generally the best line is that breaking the law is against the
> law anyway, and leaving enforcement to the normal criminal law process on
> the substantive offence rather than trying to use licensing as law
> enforcement.  In any case, would such a provision really be effective: if
> someone is going to do something illegal how constrained would they really
> be by breach of licence?****
>
> ** **
>
> (3)  there are two provisions which create uncertainty for the data user –
> the provision (para 1) that the user would be bound by later changes to the
> licence and the provision (para 3) that the City might retrospectively
> require the user to remove an attribution.  (The latter was an issue
> recently discussed here in the context of the proposed Datalizenz
> Deutschland [3]).  It would be better to say that a user who has downloaded
> the data may continue to use the data in perpetuity under the licence which
> applied at the time that he downloaded it.****
>
> ** **
>
> (4) the Acceptance of Other Conditions clause is also problematical – the
> *requirement* to accept other conditions means that the licence as it
> stands could not be classed as Open.  If other licence conditions are
> really necessary for specific datasets then it would be best for these to
> be self-standing licences and to have a general, open and complete licence
> that applied to all the Open Data which the City of Calgary is making
> available. ****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> [1] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/****
>
> ** **
>
> [2] Note that CC-BY 3.0 actually allows the licensor to make the
> attribution optional, if that is what you want.  It also has provisions
> about what to do if there would be a lengthy list of attributions in a
> “collection”.****
>
> ** **
>
> [3] http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/2013-March/000344.html****
>
> ** **
>
> Regards****
>
> ** **
>
> Andrew Stott****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* od-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:
> od-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] *On Behalf Of *Simbirski, Walter
> *Sent:* 18 March 2013 14:51
> *To:* 'od-discuss at lists.okfn.org'
> *Subject:* [od-discuss] City of Calgary Open Data License Approval Request
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> The Open Data License for the City of Calgary can be found here:****
>
> ** **
>
> https://cityonline.calgary.ca/Pages/PdcTermsOfUse.aspx****
>
> ** **
>
> We would like to have the license reviewed for conformance as an open data
> license.****
>
> ** **
>
> We believe it is similar to the Creative Commons Attribution License with
> the following differences:****
>
> ** **
>
> **-          **We do not require attribution although users are
> encouraged to give attributions. Our thoughts are that in the case of
> compilations of data the attribution list can become quite lengthy and the
> amount of data actually used from a data set could be quite small;
> therefore, we have given the user the option to include or exclude
> attribution.****
>
> **-          **We ask users not to use data from City of Calgary for
> illegal purposes. While we cannot strictly enforce such a clause this puts
> the onus on the user of data to ensure that the use of data conforms to
> regional laws.****
>
> ** **
>
> Thank you****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> *Walter Simbirski*
> Intellectual Property Analyst, Access Solutions****
>
> Infrastructure & Information Services
> The City of Calgary | Mail Code: #8191
> *T:* 403-268-2069 | *F:* 403-268-3638 www.calgary.ca ****
>
> Floor 6 Calgary Municipal Building - B10-4****
>
> P.O. Box 2100, Station M, Calgary, AB Canada T2P 2M5****
>
> ** **
>
> *ISC: Protected*
>
> * *
>
> [image: cid:image001.png at 01CDAD2B.01B858F0]**
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
> ------------------------------
>
> NOTICE -
> This communication is intended ONLY for the use of the person or entity
> named above and may contain information that is confidential or legally
> privileged. If you are not the intended recipient named above or a person
> responsible for delivering messages or communications to the intended
> recipient, YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED that any use, distribution, or copying
> of this communication or any of the information contained in it is strictly
> prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify
> us immediately by telephone and then destroy or delete this communication,
> or return it to us by mail if requested by us. The City of Calgary thanks
> you for your attention and co-operation.****
>
> _______________________________________________
> od-discuss mailing list
> od-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/od-discuss
> Unsubscribe: http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/options/od-discuss
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/attachments/20130318/10879743/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 4137 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/attachments/20130318/10879743/attachment-0003.png>