[sc-announce] Nguyen on keeping data open and free -- Science Commons blog

Donna Wentworth dwentworth at creativecommons.org
Wed Apr 23 14:44:51 EDT 2008


Nguyen on keeping data open and free

April 23rd, 2008<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/04/23/nguyen-on-keeping-data-open-and-free/>by
dwentworth

In the wake of Creative Commons'
announcement<http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8211>last week
that the beta
CC0 waiver <http://labs.creativecommons.org/license/zero/> has now been
released, Science Commons Counsel Thinh
Nguyen<http://sciencecommons.org/about/whoweare/nguyen/>has written a
short paper to help explain why we need legal tools like the
waiver to facilitate scientific research. Writes Nguyen:

Any researcher who needs to draw from many databases to conduct research is
painfully aware of the difficulty of dealing with a myriad of differing and
overlapping data sharing policies, agreements, and laws, as well as parsing
incomprehensible fine print that often carries conflicting obligations,
limitations, and restrictions. These licenses and agreements can not only
impede research, they can also enable data providers to exercise "remote
control" over downstream users of data, dictating not only what research can
be done, and by whom, but also what data can be published or disclosed, what
data can be combined and how, and what data can be re-used and for what
purposes.

Imposing that kind of control, Nguyen asserts, "threatens the very
foundations of science, which is grounded in freedom of inquiry and freedom
to publish." The situation is further complicated by the fact that different
countries have different laws for protecting data and databases, making it
difficult to legally integrate data created or gathered under multiple
jurisdictions. Using a "copyleft" license doesn't mitigate the difficulty,
since any license is premised on underlying rights, and those rights can be
highly variable and unpredictable.

Finding a solution to these problems was the impetus behind the Science
Commons Open Data
Protocol<http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-data-protocol/>,
which Nguyen describes as "a set of principles designed to ensure that
scientific data remains open, accessible, and interoperable." In a nutshell,
the idea is to return data to the public
domain<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain>,
"relinquishing all rights, of whatever origin or scope, that would otherwise
restrict the ability to do research (i.e., the ability to extract, re-use,
and distribute data)." The CC0 waiver and the Open Data
Commons<http://www.opendatacommons.org/>Public Domain Dedication and
License (
PDDL<http://www.opendatacommons.org/odc-public-domain-dedication-and-licence/>)
are tools to help people and organizations do that, implemented under the
terms of the Protocol.

Of course, there are many existing initiatives to return data to the public
domain. What the Protocol aims to do, however, is bring all of these
initiatives together. Explains Nguyen:

What we seek is to map out and enlarge this commons of data by seeking out,
certifying, and promoting existing data initiatives as well as new ones that
embrace and implement these common principles, so that within this clearly
marked domain, scientists everywhere can know that it is safe to conduct
research.

You can read the entire paper, *Freedom to Research: Keeping Scientific Data
Open, Accessible, and
Interoperable*<http://sciencecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/freedom-to-research.doc>,
in the Science Commons Reading
Room<http://sciencecommons.org/resources/readingroom/>
.

................
Donna Wentworth
Communications Specialist
Science Commons
http://sciencecommons.org
dwentworth at creativecommons.org <kaitlin at creativecommons.org>
................
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