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MJ Ray | 26 Sep 14:01

Open Data Commons - Licence now out

One problem caused by Europe for free software is database licensing,
which isn't quite the same as copyright over databases.  Someone has
published a first draft of an open data licence to try to cover this.
Is this useful for free software or not?

Introduction: http://www.opencontentlawyer.com/2007/09/24/open-data-commons-licence-now-out/
Draft: http://www.opencontentlawyer.com/open-data/open-database-licence/
Discussion list: http://lists.opencontentlawyer.com/listinfo.cgi/tcl-discuss-opencontentlawyer.com

I'm slightly concerned about the triple-whammy of database licensing,
copyright licensing and a contract.  I'm very happy to see the
confusing CC-style anti-TPM wording made irrelevant by permitting
parallel distribution.

There's also an Open Data Factual Info Licence which puzzles me a bit
because *information* is not covered by copyright, only the expression
(the licence also seems to state this in point 2.4), so it seems a bit
unnecessary.

Please comment on the owner's site and/or here.  I'll try to link the
two in a few minutes.

Thanks in advance,
--

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MJ Ray http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html tel:+844-4437-237 -
Webmaster-developer, statistician, sysadmin, online shop builder,
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Alex Hudson | 26 Sep 14:43

Re: Open Data Commons - Licence now out


Thanks for finding this, MJ.

On Wed, 2007-09-26 at 13:03 +0100, MJ Ray wrote:
> One problem caused by Europe for free software is database licensing,
> which isn't quite the same as copyright over databases. Someone has
> published a first draft of an open data licence to try to cover this.
> Is this useful for free software or not?

Personally, I think it absolutely is: there are many examples of
databases which make free software useful, from dictionaries to speech
synthesis audio libraries, and the fact that they don't have database
licenses at the moment somewhat casts a shadow over them.

> I'm slightly concerned about the triple-whammy of database licensing,
> copyright licensing and a contract.

I think copyright + database right is pretty much essential because of
the differing jurisdictions: many places you can't copyright databases,
some places you can, and some places you get a copyright-like database
right. 

The contractual aspect also seems unavoidable: see, e.g., the section on
moral rights: "If waiver is not possible, Licensor agrees not to assert
any moral rights mentioned above over the Database". Agreement between
parties means "contract" pretty much.

Maybe it's possible to phrase that kind of thing as "Licensor offers a
non-exclusive and irrevocable promise not to assert any moral rights .."
type thing, but frankly I'd be much more comfortable with a contract :)
(Continue reading)

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MJ Ray | 26 Sep 15:26

Re: Open Data Commons - Licence now out

Alex Hudson <home@...> wrote:
> Thanks for finding this, MJ.

No worries.  It's from the library space, sponsored by a
non-free-software ex-co-operative sort-of-competitor, who I'm watching
to try to learn from their failures and successes.

I just had this turn up in the mail, which I think is intended for the
list (the web interface mentioned is gmane), so I forward it:

Message-Id: <BB4D240B-A2C8-481D-ACE5-C4AE23073B5C@...>
From: Jordan S Hatcher
Subject: Thanks for the post
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:50:59 +0100

to FSF Europe.

I tried to reply using the web interface, but it kept accusing me of  
top posting.

So I posted to opencontentlawyer -- feel free to repost to that list.
http://www.opencontentlawyer.com/2007/09/26/open-data-commons-contracts-and-factual-information/

Thanks!

~Jordan

____
Mr. Jordan S Hatcher, JD, LLM
(Continue reading)

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Shane Martin Coughlan | 26 Sep 14:13

Re: Open Data Commons - Licence now out

Hi MJ

MJ Ray wrote:
> One problem caused by Europe for free software is database licensing,
> which isn't quite the same as copyright over databases.  Someone has
> published a first draft of an open data licence to try to cover this.
> Is this useful for free software or not?

I'm going to pass this for reference on to the FTF legal network.
Thanks for posting this MJ.

Regards

Shane

--

-- 
Shane Coughlan
FTF Coordinator
Free Software Foundation Europe
Office: +41435000366 ext 408 / Mobile: +41792633406
coughlan@...
Support Free Software > http://fsfe.org


Hi MJ

MJ Ray wrote:
> One problem caused by Europe for free software is database licensing,
> which isn't quite the same as copyright over databases.  Someone has
(Continue reading)

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