Re: Licensing advice

On 7/25/13 9:03 AM, John Erickson wrote:
> My two cents: In many legal regimes it has been successfully argued
> that "code is speech." The imperative vs declarative distinction is
> likely to fail; if the code conveys "information" intended to control
> the operation of another system, it can be argued that it is a form of
> speech (and not merely "data," for which different IP rules may
> apply). Consider the DeCSS trials (and tribulations) of the last
> decade <http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise50.html>
>
> People interested in this topic might enjoy Gabriella Coleman's "Code
> is Speech" (2009) <http://bit.ly/CodeIsSpeech> and "Coding Freedom"
> (2013) <http://bit.ly/CodingFreedom>

In my eyes, Data is Code and Code is Data. Turtle and other (concrete 
RDF syntaxes) are simply encoding notations (so they are code).

Related:

1. 
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/642357/whats-the-difference-between-data-and-code
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoiconicity -- Homoiconicity
3. 
http://dbpedia.org/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdbpedia.org%2Fresource%2FHomoiconicity 
-- Homoiconicity description in DBpedia
4. 
http://lod.openlinksw.com/describe/?uri=http://yago-knowledge.org/resource/Homoiconicity 
-- Homoiconicity description in YAGO.

Kingsley
> On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 8:30 AM, Víctor Rodríguez Doncel
> <vrodriguez@fi.upm.es> wrote:
>> Oh! I didn't know... but if you can insert a "SQL" expression then R2RML is
>> certainly imperative.
>> Now I am very curious about the "Prolog" question, too, and I would like to
>> hear more opinions.
>>
>> To foster the discussion, I have posted about "RDF Mappings and Licenses"
>> here: http://licensius.com/blog/MappingsAndLicenses
>>
>> Víctor
>>
>> El 25/07/2013 13:13, Barry Norton escribió:
>>
>>
>> Interesting distinction, but I'm not sure I buy it.
>>
>> Does that mean software licenses don't apply to PROLOG code?
>>
>> I can actually make R2RML mappings more imperative than PROLOG cuts by using
>> control flow features of SQL.
>>
>> Barry
>>
>>
>> On 25/07/13 12:04, Víctor Rodríguez Doncel wrote:
>>
>> Dear Roberto, all
>>
>> Well, I have not heard about any case in a trial court about this and the
>> legal texts seem somewhat ambiguous. Also, I have not heard other qualified
>> opinions on this particular regard. So, this can be matter for a friendly
>> discussion.
>>
>> But I still lean towards not considering a mapping (for example the R2RML
>> below) as a computer program.
>> The mapping is declarative, not imperative. They are not instructions, as
>> required in the legal text.
>>
>> Think of HTML pages. I dont think they are regarded as software. People
>> don't license them with a BSD license. They use CreativeCommons licenses,
>> intended for general works. You declare a table, a computer program will
>> process it. (Yet, a Javascript piece would be made up of instructions).
>>
>> I hope I clarified my point.
>> Víctor
>>
>>
>>
>> @prefix rr: <http://www.w3.org/ns/r2rml#>.
>> @prefix ex: <http://example.com/ns#>.
>>
>> <#TriplesMap1>
>>      rr:logicalTable [ rr:tableName "EMP" ];
>>      rr:subjectMap [
>>          rr:template "http://data.example.com/employee/{EMPNO}";
>>          rr:class ex:Employee;
>>      ];
>>      rr:predicateObjectMap [
>>          rr:predicate ex:name;
>>          rr:objectMap [ rr:column "ENAME" ];
>>      ].
>>
>>
>>
>> El 25/07/2013 10:32, Roberto García escribió:
>>
>> Dear Víctor, Tom, all,
>>
>> Maybe I've missed something but if what is going to be licensed are R2RML
>> mappings, for me this is code.
>>
>> As Víctor quoted, a computer program is (WIPO): "a set of instructions,
>> which controls the operations of a computer in order to enable it to perform
>> a specific task".
>>
>> This is just what happens with R2RML mappings, they are based on a
>> metalanguage that is read by a computer using a R2RML interpreter
>> (implemented using another programming language but just similar to a
>> compiler) that at last executes a set of instructions that read data from a
>> source and generate a data stream in the output...
>>
>> My 2c,
>>
>>
>> Roberto
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 11:01 AM, Víctor Rodríguez Doncel
>> <vrodriguez@fi.upm.es> wrote:
>>>
>>> Well, ODC data licenses include both copyrights and database rights.
>>> So you dont give up your claims for having made a creative work...
>>>
>>> Víctor
>>>
>>> El 24/07/2013 10:38, Tom Heath escribió:
>>>
>>> Just seen this thread, apols for the slow response Barry...
>>>
>>> Of course IANAL and all that, but I disagree with Victor's conclusion.
>>>
>>> I would argue that the individual mappings are creative works (as you
>>> say), and therefore a CC license would apply (better still, why not
>>> apply a public domain waiver so they're totally open?).
>>>
>>> The collection as a whole would probably qualify as a database, at
>>> which point Victor's points about a DB license would be relevant.
>>>
>>> As others have mentioned, the data created by the execution of these
>>> mappings is another issue altogether, which you seem to have covered.
>>>
>>> My 2p worth -- hope it helps :)
>>>
>>> Tom.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12 July 2013 21:38, Víctor Rodríguez Doncel <vrodriguez@fi.upm.es>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Barry,
>>>
>>> My opinion is the following:
>>>
>>> 1. Code license NO. A computer program is (WIPO): "a set of instructions,
>>> which controls the operations of a computer in order to enable it to
>>> perform
>>> a specific task"
>>> 2. Intellectual Property. I'd say no in this case. Some databases are
>>> protected by IP law. They are if they can assumed to be "collections of
>>> literary or artistic works such as encyclopaedias and anthologies which,
>>> by
>>> reason of the selection and arrangement of their contents, constitute
>>> intellectual creations, are to be protected as such, without prejudice to
>>> the copyright in each of the works forming part of such collections".
>>> So, if you have made your mapping automatically, they are NOT under the
>>> umbrella of IP laws.
>>> 3. Database law. YES (where it applies). Relaxing the requirements, a sui
>>> generis rights is defined in Europe to protect your database if you have
>>> made an investment (in time or money) when making the database. Rights
>>> (extraction and reutilization) are kept for 15 years and are not
>>> recognized
>>> in USA and many other countries.
>>>
>>> --> Conclusion. Instead of using CreativeCommon licenses (excepting CC0
>>> which is ok), use Data Licenses (for example ODC), which include in their
>>> text a reference to the European database law.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Víctor
>>>
>>> El 12/07/2013 21:30, Barry Norton escribió:
>>>
>>>
>>> Incidentally, to clarify, I meant to ask a more fundamental question about
>>> mappings: are these creative works, deserving themselves of a CC license,
>>> or
>>> executable code, deserving of a code license?
>>>
>>> Whichever way, I'd like to make them as encumbered as possible.
>>>
>>> Barry
>>>
>>>
>>> On 12/07/13 13:20, Barry Norton wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> I'd like to publicly release R2RML mappings for the MusicBrainz dataset.
>>> DBpedia has shown interest in including the subset that can be used to
>>> create a linkset.
>>>
>>> Any idea what (kind of) licence could/should apply? (To be clear, to the
>>> mappings, as opposed to the dataset)
>>>
>>> I'd also like to attach, since R2RML is RDF, a licence and attribution on
>>> a
>>> per rr:TriplesMap basis. (The mappings are hosted on github and
>>> contributions will be accepted as I'm never going to get through all of
>>> the
>>> MB Advanced Relationships, a moving target, myself and I'm being a
>>> bottleneck.)
>>>
>>> The question's also been raised on whether a given licence can in turn
>>> impose conditions on the triples that are created using it (as derivative
>>> works)? Does that sound feasible?
>>>
>>> Any input appreciated.
>>>
>>> Barry
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Víctor Rodríguez-Doncel
>>> D3205 - Ontology Engineering Group (OEG)
>>> Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial
>>> Facultad de Informática
>>> Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
>>>
>>> Campus de Montegancedo s/n
>>> Boadilla del Monte-28660 Madrid, Spain
>>> Tel. (+34) 91336 3672
>>> Skype: vroddon3
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Víctor Rodríguez-Doncel
>>> D3205 - Ontology Engineering Group (OEG)
>>> Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial
>>> Facultad de Informática
>>> Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
>>>
>>> Campus de Montegancedo s/n
>>> Boadilla del Monte-28660 Madrid, Spain
>>> Tel. (+34) 91336 3672
>>> Skype: vroddon3
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Víctor Rodríguez-Doncel
>> D3205 - Ontology Engineering Group (OEG)
>> Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial
>> Facultad de Informática
>> Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
>>
>> Campus de Montegancedo s/n
>> Boadilla del Monte-28660 Madrid, Spain
>> Tel. (+34) 91336 3672
>> Skype: vroddon3
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Víctor Rodríguez-Doncel
>> D3205 - Ontology Engineering Group (OEG)
>> Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial
>> Facultad de Informática
>> Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
>>
>> Campus de Montegancedo s/n
>> Boadilla del Monte-28660 Madrid, Spain
>> Tel. (+34) 91336 3672
>> Skype: vroddon3
>
>


-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
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