On Mon, 9 Aug 2010 11:30:35 +0200 Francesco Poli wrote:
[...]
## ODC Open Database License (ODbL)
Better late than never, what follows is my own personal analysis of the
license.
My first comment is about the very existence of this license: we should
fight license proliferation as much as we can. Another (long and
complicated) license is not a good thing to have, hence I am not happy
at all to see that people still fail to resist the temptation to write
their own brand-new license... :-(
I am aware that in some jurisdictions there are special database
rights that are not the same thing as copyright, but I am not quite
convinced that a database-specific license is really needed.
[...]
### 1.0 Definitions of Capitalised Words
[...]
Produced Work – a work (such as an image, audiovisual material, text,
or sounds) resulting from using the whole or a Substantial part of the
Contents (via a search or other query) from this Database, a Derivative
Database, or this Database as part of a Collective Database.
[...]
Use – As a verb, means doing any act that is restricted by copyright
or Database Rights whether in the original medium or any other; and
includes without limitation distributing, copying, publicly performing,
publicly displaying, and preparing derivative works of the Database, as
well as modifying the Database as may be technically necessary to use it
in a different mode or format.
[...]
### 3.0 Rights granted
3.1 Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, the Licensor
grants to You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, terminable (but
only under Section 9) license to Use the Database for the duration of
any applicable copyright and Database Rights. These rights explicitly
include commercial use, and do not exclude any field of endeavour. To
the extent possible in the relevant jurisdiction, these rights may be
exercised in all media and formats whether now known or created in the
future.
So far, the grant of rights seems to meet the DFSG, without any
issue.
Please note that the verb Use is defined above in a very broad sense.
[...]
3.2 Compulsory license schemes. For the avoidance of doubt:
a. Non-waivable compulsory license schemes. In those jurisdictions in
which the right to collect royalties through any statutory or
compulsory licensing scheme cannot be waived, the Licensor reserves
the exclusive right to collect such royalties for any exercise by You
of the rights granted under this License;
b. Waivable compulsory license schemes. In those jurisdictions in
which the right to collect royalties through any statutory or
compulsory licensing scheme can be waived, the Licensor waives the
exclusive right to collect such royalties for any exercise by You of
the rights granted under this License; and,
c. Voluntary license schemes. The Licensor waives the right to collect
royalties, whether individually or, in the event that the Licensor is
a member of a collecting society that administers voluntary licensing
schemes, via that society, from any exercise by You of the rights
granted under this License.
This section seems to waive all the rights to collect royalties that
can actually be waived, according to applicable laws.
It seems to do no harm (it is worth noticing that a very similar clause
is found in the Creative Commons Attribution License v3.0).
[...]
### 4.0 Conditions of Use
[...]
4.2 Notices. If You Publicly Convey this Database, any Derivative
Database, or the Database as part of a Collective Database, then You
must:
a. Do so only under the terms of this License or another license
permitted under Section 4.4;
This is a copyleft mechanism.
It doesn't look like a strong one, but anyway...
Not an issue with the DFSG, but something to bear in mind when
assessing compatibility with other licenses, I would say.
[...]
4.3 Notice for using output (Contents). Creating and Using a Produced
Work does not require the notice in Section 4.2. However, if you
Publicly Use a Produced Work, You must include a notice associated with
the Produced Work reasonably calculated to make any Person that uses,
views, accesses, interacts with, or is otherwise exposed to the Produced
Work aware that Content was obtained from the Database, Derivative
Database, or the Database as part of a Collective Database, and that it
is available under this License.
a. Example notice. The following text will satisfy notice under
Section 4.3:
Contains information from DATABASE NAME, which is made available
here under the Open Database License (ODbL).
DATABASE NAME should be replaced with the name of the Database and a
hyperlink to the URI of the Database. Open Database License should
contain a hyperlink to the URI of the text of this License. If
hyperlinks are not possible, You should include the plain text of the
required URI's with the above notice.
This clause should be read
