[Open-Legislation] Reply to: API for EU legislation

[Francis Davey]

2011/5/26 Niels Erik Kaaber Rasmussen <niels at buhlrasmussen.eu>:
> Dear 'Open-Legislation'
>
> I found your thread on our EU API here (dated May 6) and would be glad to
> know which kind of terms and conditions you'd like to see present at the
> API. The data is not ours it is taken from different official sources, so we
> can't really license it - what we can do is to provide a free an open
> interface for others to use it.
>
> In regards to itsyourparliament - the data we have there has been public
> nearly since the opening of the site in the beginning of 2010, see
> http://www.itsyourparliament.eu/api/
>
> Stefan Marsiske states that "...there is unclear licensing, and it's not
> really open." - we are sorry for the unclear licensing, how can we fix that?
> And what can we do to make it really open?
>

Ideally, release it under a well recognised open licence. That is
easier said than done of course because creative commons doesn't
properly handle database rights and (for some people) the ODbL is too
complex.

You may find the ODbL is appropriate and meets your attribution
requirements. I'd give it a careful read:

http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/

In practical terms its not clear from your website what I am allowed
to do with your data. In particular, can I mash it up with other data
and pass that on to others (say via my own API)? In legal terms, may I
sub-license derived works? On the main page you talk about "linking
back" but even in these days people sometimes produce work that is not
made available via a webpage (or not solely) so what then? Presumably
you want attribution one way or another.

This isn't meant to be a criticism of mine, I'm just suggesting
reasons why someone might want more clarity in licensing.

-- 
Francis Davey