[okfn-discuss] 4 Ideas for Defending the Open Data Commons by Simon Chignard

Mon Jan 14 13:08:52 UTC 2013

Michael Bauer <michael.bauer at okfn.org> writes:

> I slightly tripped at point 4. (Charging users of the API for frequent
> use). Point 1 of the Open Definition: The work shall be available as a
> whole and at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost 

It is very difficult to really evaluate what are the "reproduction
cost", and thus what would be a reasonable financial compensation for
them.  It varies on the number of calls to the API, sure, but the
variation is not necessarily linear.

> Reproduction costs in APIs is minimal (how much does a GET request cost?) -
> Further we don't have micropayment systems that do transmit that little
> money for free. What remains is selling requests in bulk and rate limiting
> APIs.
>
> To me this puts a risk on app developers: If their (free) app becomes
> popular - they are suddenly confronted with having to pay for using an API.
> So I'd rather not go down that route.

The first risk is on the one providing the API -- if they open it with
no compensation, they are at the risk of paying a lot for it if they
are successful. 

I think the pricing models should be transparent (e.g. giving a rough
estimate of the real "compensation"), but I would not impose a free of
charge policy on API calls.

-- 
 Bastien