[okfn-za] Please Sue Me

[Adi Eyal]

Some of you may have read an article that I posted recently on the
OKFN mailing list and on the Daily Maverick with regards to the
openness of government data in South Africa.

In that article, I described an exercise that I undertook to gain
commercial access to that data. I have had very few responses, all of
which expressly forbid commercial use.

As per the Copyright Act, I am not certain that most of this data
qualifies for copyright protection as it usually contains a database
of facts where no innovative process was used to produce said data. On
the moral front, it seems absurd that data produced using public funds
should be restricted in such a way. In an ideal world an open data
licence would be attached to all government data allowing for re-use
without permission or restriction. Please see an excerpt from a
comment that I received from the legal advisor to parliament:

"Should you wish to request permission or a licence to use information
on our webpage for commercial gain, I suggest you indicate the item
you want to use and the specific purpose for its use to allow us to
make an informed decision. "

I it is unacceptable to be required to request permission to re-use a
list of MPs listed on www.parliament.gov.za

I would like to propose a provocative response that will hopefully
spark a conversation (and despite the codename, not get me sued).
Volunteers and comments and criticisms welcome.

The idea is as follows:

1. Build a website registered at www.pleasesueme.co.za
2. Scrape a bunch of data from government website, stuff that seems to
not be copyrightable
3. Upload it to the website and offer it up for sale for a nominal
fee. It needs to be sold so as to assert a right for general re-use.
Sold data will be re-released under an open licence.

The money (i expect very little data to be actually sold) will be used
to fund a war-chest (however small) for a legal defense if it comes to
that. My gut feeling is that we won't get any response at all but by
being provocative, we might get people thinking about why it might be
important to push open data licences within government. We might get a
take-down notice which would be evaluated based on merit. I can't
imagine (though I am not a lawyer) that any public agency has the
time, money or wherewithal to take this to court.

Any responses, including flames about how I'm being naive or that
antagonism is not the correct approach are welcome.

Adi

--
Adi Eyal
Data Specialist
phone: +27 78 014 2469
skype: adieyalcas
linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal