[okfn-discuss] Re: Open data licensing

[Nate Olson]

Rufus,

This sounds like a good idea, both to clear away current confusion  
and to improve understanding on new issues as they arise. And as you  
suggest, the work done here could pretty seamlessly be tied in with  
other OKF project areas.

Something that might be worth inclusion is a brief overview of  
Creative Commons--not so much its philosophy as its practical  
function. More to the point, I'd like to see a thorough diagnosis of  
CC's shortcomings, framed in terms of constructive criticism, of  
wanting to ensure it's as relevant and as resilient as possible. I  
say this as someone who, like most, isn't too familiar with IP laws  
and customs, and who regards CC in a rather uncritical light as the  
"people's champ" fighting various bogeymen. But that's obviously not  
healthy over the long term.

Here's one recent item that jarred me a little bit in this regard  
(although this is *not* all that constructive!):

http://blog.fawny.org/2007/05/15/anticommons/

For starters, can anyone point to existing writing on CC's pros/cons  
that they find particularly thoughtful, and accessible to a general  
audience?

Nate

> Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 12:55:45 +0100
> From: Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>
> Subject: [okfn-discuss] Open data licensing
> To: okfn-discuss <okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org>
>
> Attending XTech last week certainly demonstrated the rapidly growing
> interest in Open Data/Knowledge issues. In particular there quite a  
> bit
> of discussions (and uncertainty) both about the legal status of  
> data and
> what approaches to use when licensing it.
>
> Given this and the lengthy discussions last month sparked by Jo's post
> on copyright not being applicable to geodata[1] I'd like to suggest
> starting work on a mini-project with these two goals:
>
>    1. Producing a guide to (open) data licensing
>    2. Getting a list of licenses compatible with the Open Knowledge/ 
> Data
> Definition which are suitable for use with data
>
> As a start I've put up a page where we can start drafting here:
>
>    http://okfn.org/wiki/OpenDataLicensing
>
> Please dive in and post any comments or suggestions either on the wiki
> or to here.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rufus
>
> [1]: http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/okfn-discuss/2007-April/ 
> 000389.html