[@OKau] Tenders data no derivatives?????

Fri May 15 00:46:06 UTC 2015

Hi Rosie,

Take note of the disclaimer at the top of the CC-BY-ND page.

"Disclaimer

This deed highlights only some of the key features and terms of the 
actual license. It is not a license and has no legal value. You should 
carefully review all of the terms and conditions of the actual license 
before using the licensed material.

Creative Commons is not a law firm and does not provide legal services. 
Distributing, displaying, or linking to this deed or the license that it 
summarizes does not create a lawyer-client or any other relationship."

If you go to the actual deed, which is the legal document that the 
Commonwealth Government is releasing the information on their website 
under you have a quite unambiguous statement.

"3B Media, Formats and No Derivative Works

The above rights may be exercised in any media or format whether now 
known or hereafter created. They include the right to make modifications 
that are technically necessary to exercise the rights in other media and 
formats. Other than such technical modifications, You have no rights to 
make Derivative Works."

So, despite the CC-BY-ND summary implying it is actually OK to remix the 
data as long as you don't distribute it this is actually not what the 
deed says. CC-BY-ND is quite clear -- read, use, store as is on your 
computer BUT don't touch remix or value add.

Ripping the data verbatim from the website is not fair use, even if some 
of the elements of the data are in public domain.

As Steven suggested the best bet is to put a case up to the group 
responsible for releasing the tender data. I am sure they already have 
Data Supply Agreements in place for the redistribution of tender data 
since as Steven points out some commercial tender companies already have 
access to this data in various forms.

In regards to your specific questions...

 > One of the things I was potentially going to do was combine data from
 > tenders, grants and ACNC register data. I am unclear if this
 > constitutes an adaptation and if so why this would be prohibited?

As quoted above this license is quite clear "You have no rights to make 
Derivative Works".

The issue here is what are you doing with the data. If the tender 
summary is reproduced in it entirety in an unmodified state and bundled 
with the grants and ACNC register data, then this would fall under being 
a part of collection and as stated under Clause 1(a) "A Collection will 
not be considered a Derivative Work for the purposes of this Licence."

If however you scrap the data and reformat it so as to incorporate it 
into an online database / dynamic website, then this is deemed as 
"editing, modifying or adapting" the work and clearly fits into the 
definition of a Derivative Work.

In regards to why creating derivatives of this data is prohibited; only 
the custodians of the dataset can really say.

 > I would like to know if the uses that people actually want the
 > Commonwealth tenders data put to are prohibited under the current
 > licence, if so why and how that can be changed?
 >
 > It is also worth asking whether the same limitations are going to be
 > applied to grants.gov.au when it comes online?

Taking one step back. The issue here is really about licensing.

Creative Commons licenses - especially version 1 through to 3 - although 
applied to various datasets were not specifically designed to address 
the needs of data custodians or the distribution and reuse of data. 
Apparently Version 4 CC licenses have been modified to address 
protection of databases; see here...

https://wiki.creativecommons.org/Data#Can_databases_be_released_under_CC_licenses.3F

Personally I think custodians need to distinguish between data and the 
representation of data. The former should be covered by licenses 
specifically designed for data and the later by traditional copyright 
law or CC licenses. Using CC licenses to manage data is confusing and 
their use is why there are so many problems when government agencies 
eventually release their data.

Government Agencies should stop using CC licences to manage data and 
start using licenses that have been specifically designed to address the 
needs and concerns of data users, data custodians and data creators.

A list of licenses that meet the Open Data Definition can be found here...

http://opendefinition.org/licenses/

For the record, the license used by the Commonwealth Government on the 
Tender Site -- that is CC-BY-ND is listed as a Non-Conformant License on 
the Open Data Definition Website...

http://opendefinition.org/licenses/nonconformant/

On 15/05/15 06:32, Rosie Williams wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I would like to create an open data use case based on the Commonwealth
> tenders data at tenders.gov.au. This data has the licence CC by 3.0-ND
> which includes:
>
>   * *NoDerivatives* — If you remix, transform, or build upon
>     <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/au/#> the material,
>     you may not distribute the modified material.
>
> http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/au/
>
>
> I suspect that the requirements that I am gathering from prospective
> users (and will continue to gather) might constitute an adaptation. I
> was hoping for some clarification of this and also why this limitation
> has been placed on this data as I am puzzled as to its existence and am
> inclined to challenge it.
>
> One of the things I was potentially going to do was combine data from
> tenders, grants and ACNC register data. I am unclear if this constitutes
> an adaptation and if so why this would be prohibited?
>
> People also want data presented in a way that is meaningful to them ie
> with context. This can involve mathematical context created by providing
> statistics (totals, percentages, averages etc) and also combining data
> with other data eg ABS data. This is what makes data of use to people.
>
> I would like to know if the uses that people actually want the
> Commonwealth tenders data put to are prohibited under the current
> licence, if so why and how that can be changed?
>
> It is also worth asking whether the same limitations are going to be
> applied to grants.gov.au when it comes online?
>
> thanks in advance,
>
> Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)
> ________________________________________
> NoFibs.com.au <http://nofibs.com.au> - Open Data Reporter | InfoAus.net
> <http://infoaus.net> - Founder and Developer
>
>
>
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-- 
Cheers Simon

    Simon Cropper - Open Content Creator

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