[od-discuss] GGC LB to OKFN advisory council: Conformance check of licence "GeoLicence V1.2.1-Open (mail resent in reduced size)

Thu Oct 31 10:13:23 UTC 2013

Dear OKFN advisory council,

we would like to submit the "GeoLicence V1.2.1-Open" which can be found under

English version:
http://www.geolizenz.org/index/page.php?p=GL%2Fopendata&langlic=en_EN

German Version:
http://www.geolizenz.org/index/page.php?p=GL%2Fopendata&langlic=de_DE

so that it can be checked for conformance against the Open Definition.

Please find below more backround information which you have asked for in the license approval process:

1.     The rationale for the new license:
The GeoLicence in its original scenarios has been worked out beginning in 2010 together with relevant stakeholders from public authorities, research and economy to support uniform and easy click-licensing of public geodata which is additionally combined with the needed reliability to allow sustainable commercial use (mutual agreement, 1-year guarantee for availability of offered data product, etc.). The 8 different combinable scenarios can be found in English under https://www.geolizenz.org/index/page.php?p=GL%2Flicense&langlic=en_EN. In addition, to also allow the usage of this licence model for data products being provided as OpenData following the OpenData principles, an additional "Open" variant of the GeoLicence has been developed, GeoLicence V1.2.1-Open.

2.     Is the license specific to an organization/place/jurisdiction?
No, it is compliant to the European and German legal framework but the licence formulates general principles (granting of rights, liability etc).  All data provider and user are free to use this licence to support the re-use of geodata.

3.     Compare and contrast to any existing similar approved as OD-conformant licenses<http://opendefinition.org/licenses/>.
The GeoLicence V1.2.1-Open can be compared with the CC-BY licence, however being more specificly designed to the needs of data products (here: geodata).

4.     What benefit does the new license bring over already approved OD-conformant licenses which would outweigh the costs of license proliferation<http://opensource.org/proliferation-report>?
The GeoLicence was developed to become a standard in the geodata sector to overcome the massive licence proliferation in Germany, especially in the sector of geodata, which is a big obstacle for the commercial users. With the GeoLicence-Open, this standard is also expandable to those who are already using the GeoLicence model for non-open offers.

5.     Is the license compatible with existing OD-conformant licenses? By alignment (permissions identical or a superset of existing license, conditions identical or a subset) and/or express permission to license the original and/or adaptations of the licensed work under an existing license?
Some of the conditions of the GeoLicence-Open are similar or even word by word identical to the CC-BY licence. Generally it can be combined with products being distributed under any other licence as long as these other licences correspond at least with the terms of use of this GeoLicence V1.2.1-Open (see also last sentence chapter 5 of licence text).

6.     Provide a link to any public drafting process (e.g., conducted on a public communication forum of some sort; multiple drafts presented to that forum) for the license.
The GeoLicence V1.2.1-Open has been drafted and worked out together this summer with Daniel Dietrich from OKFN Germany and Mathias Schindler from WIKIMEDIA Germany to make the necessary adaptions to the licence text in order to be compliant to the Open Definition. Different stages of the draft versions had been made available within the group working this out. There was no public review on that.

We are looking forward to hearing from your decision and being able to support the Open Data philosophy by providing an "Open definition-conformant"- licence  within the GeoBusiness.

If you have further questions do not hesitate to contact me under my contact details below.

Best Regards,
Lars Behrens

............................
Lars Behrens
German GeoBusiness Commission
- Project Management -

at the Federal Institute
for Geosciences and Natural Resources
Stilleweg 2
D-30655 Hannover

Tel.: +49.(0)511.643.2996
Fax: +49.(0)511.643.2995
mobile: +49.(0)160.90124459
E-Mail: lars.behrens at geobusiness.org<mailto:lars.behrens at geobusiness.org>
www.geobusiness.org<http://www.geobusiness.org/>

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