[okfn-discuss] Re: Open data licensing

Tue May 29 08:31:55 UTC 2007

On 28/5/07 17:09, Rufus Pollock wrote:

> Paul Miller wrote:
>> Nate, all
>> 
>> In a previous role, I funded some research to look at the applicability of
>> CC to (UK) public sector resources.
>> 
>> The report, from 2005, is here - http://www.intrallect.com/cie-study/
> 
> Thanks for the pointer Paul -- I remember taking a look at this when it
> first came out. What really hits me on a re-read is the excellence of
> its basic recommendations (included below) which are simple, clear and
> very much in line with the philosophy of the Open Knowledge Definition.

Agreed. And I'm disappointed that more wasn't done with the results by the
commissioning organisations after I left. I'd certainly be keen to see some
of the more practical findings and recommendations carried forward, as -I'm
sure - would the authors.

At the time, I think the seemingly simple first recommendation you cite was
in many ways the most radical and important; that the presumption move from
one of making a conscious decision to open a resource toward one in which
resources were automatically open unless a conscious and defensible decision
were actively made to restrict. Those of you with any involvement in
Government can doubtless imagine the shock with which THAT was greeted back
in 2005, despite FoI etc...  ;-)

Paul

> 
> ~rufus
> 
> ## From Page 5 of the CIE Study
> 
> Recommendation (pg 25): CIE organisations adopting a policy for
> encouraging reuse should consider basing it on the following principles
> 
>   1. Resources should be made available for reuse unless there is a
> justifiable reason why they should not.
> 
>   2. The reuse of resources should be as unconstrained as possible. For
> example,
>   resources should be made available for commercial reuse as well as
> non- commercial reuse wherever possible.
> 
>   3. The range of permitted uses of resources should be as wide as
> possible, for example, including the right to modify the resource and
> produce derivative works from it.
> 
>   4. Reuse should be encouraged by permitting others to redistribute
> resources on a world-wide basis.
> 
>   5. Resources should be made directly available and discoverable
> electronically whenever possible.
> 
>   6. The conditions of use for each resource should be linked directly
> to the resource so that they are reusable at the point of discovery.
> 
> Recommendation (pg 27): Creative Commons licences are suitable for the
> publication of many resources produced by public sector organisations,
> including those produced by organisations in the Common Information
> Environment, because the baseline conditions and choices can meet many
> situations. CIE Organisations adopting a policy of making resources
> available for reuse should use the following set of Creative Commons
> licences to meet their licensing principles unless there is a clear
> reason for not doing so:
> 
>    * Attribution-only (BY) licence meets the most general conditions of
>    principle 2
>    * Attribution-Non-commercial-Share-alike (BY-NC-SA) licence meets the
>    more specific conditions of principle 3
>    * Attribution-Non-commercial-No-derivates (BY-NC-ND) licence can be
> used if modification is to be prevented
> 
> Recommendation (pg 30): CIE organisations that are publishing materials
> for reuse should use Creative Commons wherever possible but when
> resources cannot be licensed under Creative Commons the first choice
> should be another commonly used licence such as Creative Archive or
> Click-Use, in order to minimise the number of licences used.  However
> some resources may exist under conditions which would not allow a
> standard licence to be used and these resources could be made available
> under a customised licence. Customised licences should be based on
> Creative Commons baseline rights as much as possible.
> 

-- 
Dr Paul Miller
Senior Manager & Technology Evangelist, Talis
w: www.talis.com/       m: +44 (7769) 740083
im: talis_paul at mac.com [AIM, MSN and iChat]
skype: napm1971
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