[od-discuss] Question about open data licenses

Sun Apr 6 19:22:10 UTC 2014

Silly question, maybe:

Is it acceptable for an open data license to limit the use of whatever
it covers to lawful purposes?

The question is about this license, by the Danish government body
Digitaliseringsstyrelsen (Agency for Digitalization):

http://digitaliser.dk/resource/2432531

The clause that makes me wonder is this:

"Det skal sikres, at brug af data er i overensstemmelse med dansk ret."

... meaning ...

"It must be ensured that the data are used in acccordance with Danish law."

Apart from this one clause, the license is a very decent BSD- or
MIT-style license that is fully compliant with the Open Definition.

But I wonder if this one clause is a poison pill that they should be
advised to take out?

Now suppose ... someone took property value data to make an app which
figures out which families may be rich and uses it to burgle them. When
they are caught, should they also be prosecuted for breaking the open
data license? They might, but it seems absurd.

A second scenario: Someone makes another and perfectly legitimate
traffic monitoring application, and someone buys that app and uses it to
figure out when trucks carrying valuable goods pass. The crooks did not
make the app, which is legit. Should the supplier of the app be
prosecuted for not ensuring a legal use of the data? But how could they?

Can an open data license contain such a clause?

I'm thinking it might put limits on redistribution (since you can't
ensure how the recipient uses the data) and make the license technically
revokable if the law changes.

Both of them would seem to undermine it. Or am I reading it too
literally? IANAL.

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