Difference between revisions of "Guide to Public Geodata Licensing"
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== Public Domain == | == Public Domain == | ||
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| + | The meaning of "public domain" varies according to regions. It is possible to dedicate a work to the public domain during a time at which one could assert copyright or other rights in it. Otherwise, when copyright expires on a work (after a time which may vary for class of work as well as jurisdiction), it falls into the public domain. In the US, data made openly available from entities such as NASA and the DOD, or by ESA in Europe, may be perceived to be in the "public domain" because it is available with no formal constraints. | ||
== Copyright == | == Copyright == | ||
Revision as of 13:01, 27 November 2007
This is an outline draft of what is intended to be a guide to open geodata licensing options and current precedents, written to help public administrations choose or design an open license for their data.
It is inspired by the Open Knowledge Foundation's Guide to Open Data Licensing.
Introduction
- Informative, not normative
- Collective and growing guidelines
Open License Concept
The concept of "open licensing" under discussion originates in Free Software. A person or organisation makes a work available under a copyright license with certain restraints which do not restrict access to, reuse of or redistribution of the work. There are many different licenses and license styles to choose from. For many it is enough to say a work of software is open if it uses a license that is described by the OSI Open Source Definition
The Open Definition offers the same service for open data licenses. The aim is to make it clear what the aims are in "open licensing" a work, as well as what the results can be.
Data Licensing Styles
Public Domain
The meaning of "public domain" varies according to regions. It is possible to dedicate a work to the public domain during a time at which one could assert copyright or other rights in it. Otherwise, when copyright expires on a work (after a time which may vary for class of work as well as jurisdiction), it falls into the public domain. In the US, data made openly available from entities such as NASA and the DOD, or by ESA in Europe, may be perceived to be in the "public domain" because it is available with no formal constraints.
Copyright
Attribution constraints
Non-Commercial constraints
(each summarised with pros and cons, references at the end)
Database Rights
Existing Open Licenses by Country
Canada
- Manitoba Land Inititative - https://web2.gov.mb.ca/mli/ Custom License: Despite the data is Crown Copyright, all use, including commercial use is free of cost. A clause prohibits the sale of data without "added value" modification.
Denmark
Holland
Italy
Spain
References
- EDINA paper in particular
- highlights of OSM-legal-talk
- a lot of other mailing list posts, blog entries, etc