On 29 June 2010 13:50, Feargal Hogan <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi all > > Does anyone have any opinions or references for discussions about the legal > issues around open licensing and the Database Right. A suggestion that has > been made to me that by releasing data under, for example, CC-BY-SA, one > wouldn't necessarily be abrogating any rights under the European Database > Right.] > > The thinking goes something like this: > > If the data was published in small enough chunks, e.g. schools data as one > page per school, with a CC-BY-SA byline, then the licence is applied only to > each page as it is viewed. However the Database Right in the collection of > webpages would still remain, and would not be abrogated by the use of > CC-BY-SA
It might be useful to consider what you are trying to do, or better, what exactly you are trying to prevent. It would seem odd that you could license for re-use a series of works in a way that would prevent the licensee from taking those works collectively. Its true that the sui generis databse right (and for that matter any copyright in the database) are separate rights from the copyright in the work, by CC-BY-SA 3.0 (for instance - you didn't say which CC you were using) gives a license to reproduce each page and to include those into a collection. That seems to me to imply a license to do the same to the whole collection of works you publish as well as each individual one. In other words, it seems to me on a quick read, that CC-BY-SA 3.0 at least would permit what would amount to a re-utilisation (to use the words of the directive) of the database, at least in so far as that would be an infringement of the investment in collection and verification of the contents. You might have a better argument on "arrangement" if someone copied your exact arrangement of pages (whatever that might mean in the internet context). That isn't to say that *some other* licence attached to each page that made the matter clearer might not do what you seem to want ie (i) permit copying/reuse of single pages but (ii) not permit re-use of a substantial part of the database (if you'll forgive a tautology inherent in the directive). But why? I'd be prepared to bet that there are lots of My Society types whose gut feeling runs entirely contrary to any such exercise, but it may be that I have not understood what you are doing. -- Francis Davey _______________________________________________ Mailing list [email protected] Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
