[open-government] Advice on Open Dataset Terms & Conditions in Hong Kong

Tue Jul 23 12:17:06 UTC 2013

Andrew,

I don't disagree, but these terms maybe a reflection of Chinese law. As I
am not an expert I can't make further comment on the particulars.

Could you expand on your indemnity comment? Is your concern related to
Data.One's indemnity clause? Or is your concern with indemnity in general?

Thanks
Brian

Sent from my Incredible 4G
On Jul 23, 2013 5:09 AM, "Andrew Stott" <andrew.stott at dirdigeng.com> wrote:

> Bill****
>
> ** **
>
> Thanks for drawing these Terms and Conditions for the Hong Kong Data.One
> site to our attention.  We regularly discuss whether licences for
> government data conform to the Open Definition (http://opendefinition.org/)
> on the od-discuss list.  Of course, Data is not Open Data unless it is Open.
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> I agree with you that the Terms and Conditions for the Hong Kong Data.One
> site do not seem to conform with the Open Definition, and so the data could
> not be considered “open data”. Particularly problematical are:****
>
> ** **
>
> (1) the requirement for any re-distribution of the data to be “in its
> original format” and “reproduced … accurately”.  This looks like a “no
> derivatives” provision, which would prevent the data from being Open.****
>
> ** **
>
> (2) the ban on the sale of the data – “sale of any Data by you is
> absolutely prohibited in all circumstances”.  This conflicts with the Open
> Definition, and there are a number of use cases  and business models (eg
> Data Curation, service-level guaranteed APIs, information-giving
> applications, Value-Added processing) where charges may well be made even
> though the downstream customer could still obtain the raw data directly and
> free of charge from the government.****
>
> ** **
>
> (3) the clauses limiting “unpleasant” uses of the data – this means that
> that data cannot be freely reused, and these matters should be handled
> through the normal law and its enforcement rather than through licensing**
> **
>
> ** **
>
> The provision for the indemnity by the user to the government for the use
> of data supplied by the government is also problematical.****
>
> ** **
>
> More widely, the problem here seems to be that the terms and conditions do
> not seem to envisage the sort of use cases which have been proven in other
> jurisdictions to give economic and social value and to generate business
> innovation.  Open Data is about reuse of data, not just access to it.  The
> no-derivatives requirement and the ban on the sale of the data together
> would make the development of a vibrant applications market practically
> impossible.  So what are the Hong Kong Government’s other policy objectives
> here?!****
>
> ** **
>
> Regards****
>
> ** **
>
> Andrew Stott****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* open-government-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:
> open-government-bounces at lists.okfn.org] *On Behalf Of *Bill Proudfit
> *Sent:* 23 July 2013 01:42
> *To:* open-government at lists.okfn.org; od-discuss at lists.okfn.org; Mart van
> de Ven
> *Subject:* [open-government] Advice on Open Dataset Terms & Conditions in
> Hong Kong****
>
> ** **
>
> The HK Government has the Data.One site with about 1,500 or so datasets.
>  I'm interested to know if the terms & conditions covering these datasets
> are within the range of variation of the terms and conditions of other
> governmental open dataset sites.  ****
>
> ** **
>
> Here is the link to the HK terms & conditions. ****
>
> ** **
>
> http://www.gov.hk/en/theme/psi/terms_conditions/****
>
> ** **
>
> The Open Data Handbook has this guidance on licenses.  I'm taking licenses
> to mean the same as terms & conditions.   It seems to me that the HK
> Data.One site's terms & conditions are not in step with these guidelines.
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> Is it common for locations to have opendata sites which do not meet these
> guidelines?  ****
>
> ** **
>
> What steps could be taken to get governments to follow these guidelines? *
> ***
>
> ** **
>
>
> http://opendatahandbook.org/en/how-to-open-up-data/apply-an-open-license.html
>  ****
>
> ** **
>
> Any guidance or suggestion would be great. ****
>
> ** **
>
> Many thanks,****
>
> ** **
>
> Bill ****
>
> ** **
>
> --
> Bill Proudfit
> 鮑偉霖
> Hong Kong
> baoman.wordpress.com
> www.linkedin.com/in/proudfit
> twitter ~ baoman ****
>
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