[open-science] Fwd: Open data and Panton Principles

Mon Jun 28 15:06:23 UTC 2010

On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 3:52 PM, Cameron Neylon
<cameron.neylon at stfc.ac.uk>wrote:

Only have a moment but a quick response. The core argument on this point

> revolves around the issue of the opportunity costs involved in a) having NC
> licences and b) not acting as a catalyst to persuade _others_ to _not_ use
> NC licences vs the potential income to be generated.
>
> This is an important discussion and I support what Cameron has said.

There are some important features of NC or SA which don't apply to CC-BY,
etc.

* You cannot use the data for a "commercial" purpose without asking a human.
Robots cannot make this decision. Therefore if you wish to use 1000 bits of
fragmented data, you may have to ask 1000 questions.
* a significant proportion of those 1000 humans will not reply. They are
under no obligation to do so. In fairness they may just be too busy
* it is a matter of opinion what is "commercial".
 - including in a textbook? YES
 - including in a newspaper article you get paid for? YES
 - providing professional services? YES
 - including it in an article published by a COMMERCIAL publisher? surely
YES. (they will gain revenue from this)
 - including it in an article published in a closed access non-profit
journal? I'd say YES for the same reason

So the re-use of NC data can be very limited. At every stage you have to ask
questions.

I agree there is a slight element of prisoner's dilemma in CC-BY. You are
giving away your value so someone else can profit. But if you are brave
then  it's likely that new markets will arise and you will be very well
placed.

If I were a Met Office, for example, I would grow my market on the quality
and reliability of my products, not on a monopoly. That's easy for me to
say, but there are examples where giving away increases sales.

P.

-- 
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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