https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130421/02575922789/australian-census-data-released-under-cc-license-official-site-tries-to-make-it-hard-to-download.shtml
(http://www.itnews.com.au/News/339819,abs-hobbles-census-data-downloaders.aspx) > Australian Census Data Released Under CC License, But Official Site Tries To > Make It Hard To Download > > The whole point about adopting Creative Commons licenses is to make it easier > for people to share and use works released under them. Sometimes, though, you > get the impression that certain organizations adopting these licenses would > rather that didn't happen, as in the following case from Australia, reported > by IT News: > >> The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released the latest census data for >> free under a Creative Commons license but appears to be steering people >> towards a $250 mailed out DVD rather than making it easy to download the >> information directly over the internet. >> >> Programmer and freelance journalist Grahame Bowland who first noticed it, >> said the government agency is going to great lengths to discourage people >> from downloading the files directly by dint of a convoluted site layout and >> Javascript functions that obfuscate file paths. > > The post then goes on to describe in detail some of the attempts to make it > difficult to download all of the census data, including a hard-to-find > registration page, a complex matrix of download options, and Javascript code > that does stuff like this: > >> // Function: guidGenerator >> // Description:returns a pseudo-random GUID >> //This is appended to a url for 2 reasons >> //1. to make the URL unique, so that the browser always gets it and doesn't >> use a cached version >> //2. to make a URL look like its got a unique key, in a naive attempt to >> fool a not-so-wily hacker >> //into thinking they can't download a datapack directly if they know the URL >> pattern, because they >> //need a unique key. > > Notice how anyone who might want to download datapacks directly is branded a > hacker. That's a worrying attitude, since it seems to equate people who want > to take advantage of the CC license to explore the census without jumping > through the site's hoops as shady subversives (I doubt the comment used the > term "hacker" in its more positive sense). > > As the IT News story suggests, the motivation for this obfuscation seems to > be to encourage people to pay AU $250 (about US $257) for the DVD version > instead. To save others from having to deal with the unhelpful Web site, > Bowland generously stumped up the $250 himself, and made the full census > database freely available as a torrent, as is perfectly legal under the CC-BY > license. This shows perfectly why it is pointless trying to make it hard for > people to download content that is CC licensed: once anyone has obtained a > copy, they can then make it available in a more convenient form, neatly > by-passing forlorn attempts to control something that has been set free > forever. -- Kim Holburn IT Network & Security Consultant T: +61 2 61402408 M: +61 404072753 mailto:[email protected] aim://kimholburn skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
