[od-discuss] OGL UK v3.0 decision time

Sun Oct 26 20:56:48 UTC 2014

I apologize that I have not had time to devote to ODC lately, and I
apologize to the authors of the OGL for not providing this feedback at a
time when it would have been more useful. Nevertheless, some comments:

*The good*
+1. It appears to be compliant with version 2.0 of the Open Definition.

*The less good*
This license is an extremely positive step forward when compared to
previous versions of the OGL UK, and the authors are to be thanked and
congratulated for their hard work. However, I feel the license still has
drafting issues that I feel I should raise for the record and to educate
future submitters to ODC. In particular, roughly from most important down
to "very much drafting nitpicks":

   1. It retains a variety of jurisdiction-specific clauses that will
   inevitably result in a new flood of confusing, customized,
   likely-incompatible versions of the OGL.
   2. Modern open licenses (GPL v3, MPL v2, CC 4, etc.) have realized that
   automatic termination without an ability to remedy the termination can be
   problematic. It would be good if OGL remedied this. (The simplest version
   of the cure that I'm aware of is in copyleft-next, Sec. 7(a)
   <https://gitorious.org/copyleft-next/copyleft-next/source/3baab310f662811ba48d8a86bfe7f9ef7ef612dc:Drafts/copyleft-next>
   .)
   3. The "About" section confusingly mixes legally non-impactful
   commentary/explanation with language that is presumably intended to be
   legally binding ("when the Information is adapted and licensed under either
   of those licenses...") These should be separated out.
   4. Is unnecessarily limited to public sector information ("Contains
   public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence
   v3.0.") which will be unnecessarily confusing when the database is adapted
   by combination with non-public-sector databases.
   5. Does not number sections, which makes discussion of the license
   cumbersome (though the authors are otherwise to be quite applauded for the
   clarity of the drafting!)

As a result of #1, I would strongly urge that OKFN/ODC should state that
usage of the license is disfavored unless absolutely necessary (e.g., where
usage is required by statute) in favor of jurisdiction-neutral licenses
like CC 4.0.

Luis

On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 5:46 PM, Peter Suber <peter.suber at gmail.com> wrote:

> +1 on the submitted version.
>
>      Best,
>      Peter
>
> Peter Suber
> bit.ly/petersuber
>
> On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 12:27 PM, Timothy Vollmer <
> tvol at creativecommons.org> wrote:
>
>> +1 on version as submitted.
>> tvol
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 8:45 AM, Andrew Stott <andrew.stott at dirdigeng.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> I’m +1 on the submitted version too.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *From:* od-discuss [mailto:od-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] *On
>>> Behalf Of *Baden Appleyard
>>> *Sent:* 21 October 2014 22:04
>>> *To:* Herb Lainchbury
>>> *Cc:* od-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>>> *Subject:* Re: [od-discuss] OGL UK v3.0 decision time
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> +1 on submitted version.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Baden*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 3:34 AM, Herb Lainchbury <
>>> herb at dynamic-solutions.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Since I have already called for a vote I would like to let the vote run
>>> its course.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> As Mike suggests, please switch to "viewing" mode (top right of
>>> document) to see the original version.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Herb
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 9:21 AM, Aaron Wolf <wolftune at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I *just* posted new edits, sorry… Should probably be accepted and
>>> clarified whether and which will be included in any voting…
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Aaron Wolf
>>> wolftune.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 9:00 AM, Herb Lainchbury <
>>> herb at dynamic-solutions.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I believe our discussion regarding UK OGL v3.0 draft is complete.
>>> Thanks to all who contributed.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The new draft has been posted here:
>>>
>>>
>>> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C3jPK5U61GU6hMmrEQHJ-TuC8MVPn8ngodlexlQsuRk/edit
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> A case for approval has been provided here:
>>>
>>> https://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/od-discuss/2014-October/001087.html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I call for AC members to vote to indicate whether they agree that the
>>> proposed OGL v3.0 conforms to the Open Definition (v2.0).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I ask that members vote as soon as they feel comfortable as the license
>>> publisher is working to a deadline that is fast approaching.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> We will continue counting votes for up to two weeks from now or until we
>>> have enough +1s that it would be impossible for -1s to overturn.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> +1 from me.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks all,
>>>
>>> Herb
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> od-discuss mailing list
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Herb Lainchbury, Dynamic Solutions
>>>
>>> 250.704.6154
>>>
>>> http://www.dynamic-solutions.com
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Timothy Vollmer
>> Public Policy Manager, Creative Commons
>> Get Creative Commons Updates http://bit.ly/commonsnews
>>
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