[cc-community] copyright on data?

Gisle Hannemyr gisle at ifi.uio.no
Sun Apr 26 07:08:00 EDT 2009


On 26.04.2009 12:12, Chris Watkins wrote:
> I'm thinking of WiserEarth's data, which is under a Creative Commons
> Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.
> 
> We'd like to access this data for our own projects, but we use a
> CC-BY-SA license - the NC clause means their work is incompatible.
> 
> The question is: as they're under US law, is the basic data public
> domain, seeing as it's something akin to a phone book? Contact details,
> address, organization name and contact person's name - my understanding
> is that this can't be copyrighted in the US.

AFAIK, basic facts (i.e. stuff that are not the result of a creative
effort) can't be copyrighted anywhere.  In Europe, however, there is
so-called sui generis rights that give such data some protection.
However,  AFAIK sui generis rights are explicitly waived in all European
jurisdiction 3.0 licenses, to bring them in-line with the situation
in the US, there is something like the following in the license: "If
the licensor is the owner of sui generis rights or similar according
to the European Database Directive, the licensor waives these rights."

I think that from a strict legal viewpoint, you can treat basic data
that has been published under a CC license as if it is public
domain.

However, you may also consider the community aspect, and
respect their license even if you are not legally required to do
so.  The Commons Deed have the following clause: "Any of the above
conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright
holder." Have you considered asking them permission to import their
data for you projects?

To an outsider like me, it looks like WiserEarth and Appropedia
are both working towards very similar goals, so their should be
some motivation in both communities for helping and respecting
each other.
-- 
- gisle hannemyr [ gisle{at}hannemyr.no - http://folk.uio.no/gisle/ ]
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