[open-bibliography] Orphan data

[John Mark Ockerbloom]

On 03/02/2012 10:43 AM, Karen Coyle wrote:
> This isn't a question about copyright, and most data and metadata are not
> considered for copyright. It's about licensing and contracts. That's a different
> area of law. That is the area of law that we covered in our principles, not
> copyright.

Do you have any sort of contract or licensing arrangement with the organization
that has the data?  If not-- if, for instance, you just came across
it on a public website-- then you shouldn't be bound by one, I wouldn't think.
If you happen to be bound by one, is anyone else able to view the data who is
not subject to a contract?

Also, how large is the data set?  Is it of a size that would make it
feasible to "re-curate" (that is, check the facts asserted, add anything
else that seems relevant, and delete or change irrelevant or badly
encoded information, or expressions that are not simply factual)?
If feasible, I'd think that would be sufficient
processing to address US copyright and provenance concerns.

(Note however, that I am not a lawyer, let alone your lawyer)

John Mark Ockerbloom