[okfn-za] Please Sue Me

Wed May 1 17:13:03 UTC 2013

I've registered the doman (just waiting for coza to fix their payment
gateway so that I can pay for it).

I've also put together a shop front website using woocommerce and have
uploaded a couple of datasets there. Any contribution of skills and/or
time would be greatly appreciated.

Hopefully you should be able to go to http://www.pleasesueme.co.za by
tomorrow and see a basic site framework.

Adi

On 1 May 2013 19:09, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
> Forking back to the start of the thread:
>
> It seems there is pretty good consensus this is a worthwhile idea :-)
>
> next steps would seem to be:
>
> - Grabbing some relevant data (we've already had an offer off-list I
> think, or have data)
> - Putting up a website (I can get a nice wordpress site booted if
> someone (Adi?) can register the domain ...
>
> What do people think?
>
> Rufus
>
> On 30 April 2013 14:09, Adi Eyal <adi at burgercom.co.za> wrote:
>> 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
>>
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-- 
Adi Eyal
Data Specialist
phone: +27 78 014 2469
skype: adieyalcas
linkedin: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Adi/Eyal