[open-government] Deciphering licensing in Project Open Data

Thu May 23 14:45:49 UTC 2013

Hi Josh,

One major question, that perhaps you could clarify on, is the status of
Federal data *outside* the US. While I understand the idea that is public
domain in the US does this also mean it is public domain everywhere else
(or can a US Federal entity asserts rights in data outside the US)?

If the latter this would still require a clear "public domain dedication or
license". I also wonder if it is hoped the guidance will inform non-Federal
government entities at the state and local level?

Regards,

Rufus

On 23 May 2013 04:02, Josh Tauberer <tauberer at govtrack.us> wrote:

>  To add on to this and clarify what Timothy wrote about in that post,
> the memorandum is almost entirely incoherent on the subject of licensing,
> and in three ways.
>
> First, it says that agencies should use open licenses for all data,
> period. Data produced by the federal government is typically not subject to
> copyright protection. You can't license something you don't own. If
> agencies began attempting to create "open licenses" for public domain data,
> we are going to be in a lot of trouble. (Data produced by government
> contractors is subject to copyright protection, which is a major loophole
> in our copyright law.)
>
> Second, every place where it mentions "open license" it says something
> like "an open license that places no restriction on use." That's a
> *stronger* policy than simply open license. That is to say, I think the
> memorandum is pretty clear in requiring agencies to use a license that is
> *both* OKD-style open *as well as* placing no restrictions on use. The only
> "license" that I know of that does that is CC0 (or the PDDL).
>
> Third, the memorandum directs agencies to consult the Project Open Data
> (POD) github account for implementation advice, but the POD site portrays
> the policy as if "no restrictions on use" were not in the memorandum. So,
> again, it's incredibly unclear what the White House intended.
>
> Here in the U.S. we have unusually, if not uniquely, strong norms about
> the government not interfering with public knowledge. Propaganda is
> illegal. Freedom of the press is incredibly strong (recent events
> notwithstanding). Requiring attribution to the government, for instance,
> which might sound reasonable elsewhere, would be a major policy shift with
> significant legal implications for the press. "No restrictions on use" is
> our baseline. The consensus in the open data community here has long been
> that open government data is not "open" (in the sense of the OKD) but
> license-free. Even though "open license" sounds great, it's actually a step
> away from freedom.
>
> I've written more on this here:
>
>
> http://razor.occams.info/blog/2013/05/09/new-open-data-memorandum-almost-defines-open-data-misses-mark-with-open-licenses/
>
>
> - Josh Tauberer (@JoshData)
> http://razor.occams.info
>
> On 05/22/2013 02:02 PM, Jonathan Gray wrote:
>
>  Thought this might be of interest:
>
>  Deciphering licensing in Project Open Data
>  http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/38316
>
>  --
>
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Director of Policy and Ideas  | *@jwyg <https://twitter.com/jwyg>*
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