Re: data.gov.* memo

The public domain requirement only applies to federal agencies and
(unfortunately) not the other 30,000 state and local governments in
the U.S..

In MN we did a big study on this with Government Information Access
Council in 1996. In summary the tourism agency wants to control their
photos, the parks want to sell books without someone copying their
work, and the Universities (which are justified in being exempt) were
generally freaked out by anyone even exploring this issue in state
government.

Steven Clift

On 6/16/09, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray@okfn.org> wrote:
> I agree with you Kevin! The situation certainly seems to be more
> complicated with public cultural heritage organisations, and with
> anything else where material is being contributed by a third party -
> such as scientific research.
>
> I propose we add a general statement about making the legal status of
> data (and content) explicit - and preferably explicitly open (as in
> opendefinition.org) where appropriate.
>
> Jonathan
>
> On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 2:57 PM, Novak, Kevin<KevinNovak@aia.org> wrote:
>> All,
>>
>>
>>
>> It is a complex issue even for US government. Not so much for the general
>> agencies given Suzanne’s comments.
>>
>>
>>
>> The Library of Congress, Smithsonian, NEH, National Gallery of Art,
>> National
>> Park Service and a few others have “collections” of material that have
>> been
>> digitized and made available on the web. Many resulting from agreements
>> with
>> trustees and custodians that have donated the materials to the
>> institutions
>> for some level of access. The challenge was and is ensuring that the
>> materials are rights protected and it is made clear that they do not fall
>> under the normal regulations. Negotiating these agreements is quite an
>> experience and always challenging when you don’t have a good policy basis
>> to
>> start with. Although this isn’t specifically a “data” issue under the
>> current data.gov and UK efforts, it is indeed a growing issue for agencies
>> dealing with culturally significant materials that aren’t necessarily
>> government produced and the desire to have the materials located on
>> government websites.
>>
>>
>>
>> Kevin
>>
>>
>>
>> Kevin Novak
>>
>> Vice President, Integrated Web Strategy and Technology
>>
>> The American Institute of Architects
>>
>> 1735 New York Avenue, NW
>>
>> Washington, DC 20006
>>
>>
>>
>> Voice:   202-626-7303
>>
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>>
>> Twitter: @novakkevin
>>
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>>
>> Email:    kevinnovak@aia.org
>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> From: Acar, Suzanne [mailto:Suzanne.Acar@ic.fbi.gov]
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 8:44 AM
>> To: 'daniel@citizencontact.com'; 'jonathan.gray@okfn.org'
>> Cc: 'josema@w3.org'; 'public-egov-ig@w3.org';
>> 'John.Sheridan@nationalarchives.gov.uk'; Novak, Kevin
>> Subject: Re: data.gov.* memo
>>
>>
>>
>> Very interesting, Daniel. Will take a closer look.
>> Also, thank you Jonathan for the clarifiacation on your statement.
>>
>> Cheer
>> Suzanne
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> From: Daniel Bennett <daniel@citizencontact.com>
>> To: Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray@okfn.org>
>> Cc: Acar, Suzanne; josema@w3.org <josema@w3.org>; public-egov-ig@w3.org
>> <public-egov-ig@w3.org>; John.Sheridan@nationalarchives.gov.uk
>> <John.Sheridan@nationalarchives.gov.uk>; kevinnovak@aia.org
>> <kevinnovak@aia.org>
>> Sent: Tue Jun 16 08:44:28 2009
>> Subject: Re: data.gov.* memo
>>
>> Awhile ago, when some of the bills were starting to be introduced in XML,
>> the Congress decided to add in some Dublin Core metadata so that issues
>> such
>> as rights would be made clear. See below.
>>
>> And then there is the presumption that anyone or organization that
>> publishes
>> raw data in an open and without real applications is intending for the
>> data
>> to be either used in place or copied. This is like having an RSS newsfeed
>> and then claiming that the RSS newsfeed itself is copyrighted.
>>
>> And then there is the issue of how data is used on the Internet with
>> search
>> engines essentially having a complete copy of almost everything internally
>> in order to allow for search.   Hmmmmmm.
>>
>>
>> <metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
>>
>> <dublinCore>
>>
>> <dc:title>111 HR 11 IH: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of
>>
>> </dc:title>
>>
>> <dc:publisher>U.S. House of Representatives</dc:publisher>
>>
>> <dc:date>2009-01-06</dc:date>
>>
>> <dc:format>text/xml</dc:format>
>>
>> <dc:language>EN</dc:language>
>>
>> <dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code,
>> this
>> file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public
>> domain.</dc:rights>
>>
>> </dublinCore>
>>
>> </metadata>
>>
>>  Daniel
>>
>>
>>
>> Jonathan Gray wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 2:13 PM, Acar, Suzanne<Suzanne.Acar@ic.fbi.gov>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> US data.gov published a policy statement on the site.  Copyright statement
>> was not needed because government data once released for sharing is public
>> domain.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> While this is true for US Federal government material - this is
>>
>> unfortunately not so clear outside the US.
>>
>>
>>
>> In my experience of looking at the situation with data across Europe,
>>
>> many government sites do not explicitly state what can and can't be
>>
>> re-used. The EU PSI Directive broadly encourages member states to make
>>
>> material available for re-use - but this is still being implemented,
>>
>> and some feel there is ambiguity about its scope and strength. Also
>>
>> its always helpful to know where rights are held by third parties!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://www.okfn.org
>
>


-- 
Steven Clift - http://stevenclift.com
Executive Director - http://E-Democracy.Org
Donate today: http://e-democracy.org/donate

Received on Tuesday, 16 June 2009 21:59:04 UTC