[odc-discuss] Open licensing for reference data

Tue Nov 9 08:38:31 UTC 2010

On 11/09/2010 02:19 AM, MJ Ray wrote:
> George Moody wrote: [...]
>> I'm curious to know if there is an interest in an ODC-BY or ODbL variant that
>> omits the "free to adapt" provision.  Such a license would permit data to be
>> redistributed freely in unmodified form, but not in modified form unless it is
>> clear that modifications have been made.

Looking at the OdBL I can't see that it explicitly requires derivative 
databases to be marked as such, as the GPL, FDL and BY-SA require for 
licenced materials.

> But if it's critically important that people should be able to
> identify the original database with confidence, then I feel you should
> really be using some form of authentication or signature of the
> database.  That gives users an ability to check, while trying to use
> copyright law to deter changes still allows bad people to distribute
> bad data and cause trouble, without helping the users.
>
> Could you sign the data?

That's a nice solution. It would allow people to determine whether the 
data had been altered rather than require them to identify that they had 
altered it. But that should be sufficient if it's made clear how you 
check the data.

- Rob.