I agree wholeheartedly, but caution is (as always) advised. The Guardian's data is not just election results: they also have data on notional swing from what the previous election results would have been under the new boundaries (among other things, this means that Solihull would have been conservative rather than lib dem at the last election). This data must be based on third party polling data rather than actual election results. As a result, although I think it's unjustifiable to claim copyright or database right on election results, it's perfectly reasonable to claim it on the swing data.
Phil PS It's not too difficult to convert the guardian data to sqlite. I exported the google spreadsheet as text (which is actually tab-separated-values), converted \t to | (vertical pipe), made the number of fields equal on each line using vim's %s///, and used sqlite3's .import command. On 18 May 2010 11:25, Francis Irving <[email protected]> wrote: > Here here! > > If somebody sues you for copying election results... You'll win (even > if the law has to be changed so that you do). > > Francis > > On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 12:17:42PM +0200, Stefan Magdalinski wrote: >> >> On 18 May , at 12:10:55, Roger Moffatt wrote: >> >> > Given the debate on the copyright issue, it certainly seems to need some >> > clarification? >> > It is extraordinarily tempting just to use the data that can be found on >> > the grounds of fair use / news access and even public interest, but it is >> > frustrating that the legal position isn't clearer. >> > >> > Perhaps the Press Association will get back and say they are happy for >> > anyone to use their election data with attribution ... that would be a >> > nice resolution. >> > >> >> A better resolution would be for someone to use it and challenge them to sue >> for this absurdity and abuse of democracy. >> >> > Roger >> > _______________________________________________ >> > Mailing list [email protected] >> > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: >> > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public >> >> -- >> /* >> Stefan Magdalinski >> +27 82 0431230 (phone) >> smagdali (IM/twitter/flickr/dopplr/skype/etc) >> */ >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Mailing list [email protected] >> Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: >> https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public >> > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
