[open-government] government data licenses - best practice?

Tue Sep 14 09:11:42 UTC 2010

2010/9/13 Josh Tauberer <tauberer at govtrack.us>:
> Did anyone actually reply on this post?
>
> On 09/03/2010 06:47 AM, Olav Anders Øvrebø wrote:
>> The Norwegian government is currently working on formulating licenses
>> that will be used when agencies publish their data.
>
> The obvious answer in the U.S. would be: agencies should apply NO license to
> any work. I tend to qualify these things with "in the US" because I
> recognize that cultures seem to vary on this, but over here it's just a
> no-brainer that when the government publishes information (which is never
> copyrighted) that it should not tell its people in what ways it can or can't
> use that information. (Except for info that relates to privacy, security,
> etc.) And by and large this is actually how things are, which is good.

Josh, while I generally agree on the "be as liberal as possible"
principal, it isn't true, even in the US, that government info isn't
copyrighted -- while there is the 'noncopyright' provision for US
Federal gov material, the provision doesn't apply to state government
(or necessarily municipalities) or to the works of contractors.

Furthermore the no-copyright provision does not prevent the USA
federal government asserting copyright *outside* of the US, something
of substantial importance in the internet age.

> There is some consensus in the open gov community that this is the way
> things should be, see e.g. www.opengovdata.org.

While, as I said above, the more liberal the better I should say that
I would be happy to see material available under any open license
(http://opendefinition.org/) including ones that have attribution (and
sharealike) requirements.

> The EU Public Sector Information Directive specifically allows for certain
> types of licenses that cover "liability, the proper use of documents,
> guaranteeing non-alteration and the acknowledgment of source". These don't
> seem terribly onerous (in fact, I wouldn't object to a no-liability clause
> --- that's common in open source software, for instance), but I think the
> first question is exactly why agencies need these protections in the first
> place? What does acknowledgment do but boost their ego? Is that worth the
> limitations on the free expression by the public?

Those are good questions. I suppose this is a general issue: why do
people seek attribution or share-alike or even full copyright?

> I haven't seen a best-practices discussion about writing an open government
> data license, if one has to me made, so it would make for interesting
> further discussion.
>
> But again, I'd hope there just would not be one in the first place!

Unfortunately I think there inevitably is a requirement for such licences.

> - Josh Tauberer
> - CivicImpulse / GovTrack.us
>
> http://razor.occams.info | www.govtrack.us | civicimpulse.com
>
> "Members of both sides are reminded not to use guests of the
> House as props."
>
> On 09/03/2010 06:47 AM, Olav Anders Øvrebø wrote:
>>
>> The Norwegian government is currently working on formulating licenses
>> that will be used when agencies publish their data. Here is a blog post
>> (in Norwegian) about the considerations so far:
>> http://data.norge.no/blogg/2010/08/en-klausulbuffet-av-vilkar/
>>
>> A question to list members: Do you know of a "best practice" for such
>> licenses? Licenses that are in line with the principles of open data
>> (the Open Knowledge Definition?).
>>
>> National legislation of course complicates things. For instance one has
>> to take into consideration the law on copyright, see §43:
>>
>> http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/KKD/Medier/Acts%20and%20regulations/Aandsverkloven_engelsk_versjon_nov2008.pdf
>>
>> All the best,
>> olav
>>
>>
>>
>>
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