[okfn-discuss] what are the arguments against open data

Wed Oct 9 04:19:35 UTC 2013

1. publicly funded research. Well, I do think if the public funds it, the public should own it. But yes, there should be some incentive for the researchers. Maybe ownership until articles are published? Some kind of priority for the researchers. But on the other hand, if the public pays, the public owns. A dilemma. 

2. US govt data. Well, the US copyright office does say that works of the US govt are not subject to US copyright laws. But they also say, and now I can't find it, that when US govt works are used outside of the US, the US govt may claim copyright. Not exactly public domain.

3. The UK now makes it's data more or less open
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/2/

Gene

________________________________
 From: Bob Chen <bchen at ciesin.columbia.edu>
To: Gene Shackman <eval_gene at yahoo.com>; Open Knowledge Foundation discussion list <okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, October 8, 2013 11:03 PM
Subject: Re: [okfn-discuss] what are the arguments against open data

Yes, the principle of open data for data derived from publicly funded 
research is fairly widely accepted at least in developed countries. It 
is embodied, for example, in the OECD Principles and Guidelines for 
Access to Research Data from Public Funding, which has been accepted 
by the science and technology ministers/agencies of the OECD 
countries. However, not all countries accept this. Moreover, not all 
government data are research data, and some agencies that hold and 
release administrative data--that may be useful for research--still 
place restrictions or charges on these data to fund their own 
operations. Note that the U.S. government is one of the only 
governments to declare government produced data to be entirely in the 
public domain. Most other governments claim copyright, and then use 
their power as copyright owners to give out usage and dissemination 
rights with varying degrees of openness.

Although I agree in general that publicly funded researchers should 
share their data, note that some researchers still may invest a lot 
into their data. For example, critical research in the Antarctic could 
never have been undertaken without both public funding and scientists 
willing to go spend six months in cold and isolation. Those scientists 
might not even be willing to go if they lose the ability to publish 
based on the data they obtained. NSF's announcement today that it is 
suspending this summer's field season due to the US government 
shutdown illustrates the varied risks of this kind of science.

Cheers, Bob

*****
Dr. Robert S. Chen
Director, Center for International Earth Science Information Network
  (CIESIN), The Earth Institute, Columbia University
Manager, NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC)
P.O. Box 1000, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964 USA
tel. +1 845-365-8952; fax +1 845-365-8922
e-mail: bchen at ciesin.columbia.edu
CIESIN web site: http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu
SEDAC web site: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu
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