Alexis - I appreciate Internet Archive providing an official response, since it's an important question.
On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 1:07 AM, Alexis Rossi <ale...@archive.org> wrote: > > The data in Open Library comes from various libraries and other sources. > We don't know whether those other parties have asserted any rights over > that data, or whether they are legally able to do so. As our Terms of > Service states, we ourselves do not assert any rights over the data in OL, > but that doesn't mean that someone else won't. I understand that you'd > like us to put some clarifying license on the data, but we don't have the > information that would allow us to do that. > That, of course, makes it completely impossible to reuse the data in any legal manner. They way that one controls the provenance of the data is by requiring contributors to license their contributions in a manner which is compatible with your intended license for downstream consumers. For example, the DPLA says that they don't think most bibliographic data is copyrightable, but to the extent that it is, all their contributors will be required to license contributions under CC0. Of course, part of that is requiring that contributors have the right to grant such a license. Allowing anyone to contribute anything, not matter how shady the provenance, and telling the consumer that they bear all risk of using the data is the modus operandi of the Pirate Bay and its ilk. It shouldn't be the way Open Library operates. A little banner popped up the other day when I used Open Library to tell me that the Boston Public Library uses Open Library data. I wonder if venerable institutions like that are aware of what a shady operation they're dealing with. Depending on how many sources of data were used, it may be a lot of work, but the only sane way forward that allows people to actually use this data is to start the process of vetting and scrubbing what people contributed. Otherwise, all this work is going into something that no one will ever be able to reuse. Tom > > Thanks, > Alexis Rossi > Internet Archive > > On 26-Feb-2013, at 10:16 AM, Tom Morris wrote: > > Happy Open Data Day! Thanks for bringing this up. I think one of the > best things that people can do to be "open" is to be explicit and > transparent about the terms that they license their information under and, > if they accept & remix content, the terms under which they accept data. > > One of the key things that Creative Commons licenses were designed to > address is the friction caused by everyone having to read, understand, and > approve of lots of different unique licenses. Refusing to declare a > license and making cloudy statements about the provenance of the data is > the ultimate in anti-openness. > > I eagerly await clarification from the Open Library and/or Internet > Archive staff. > > Tom > > On Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 5:10 PM, Ben Companjen <bencompan...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> I should have added the most clearly confusing license statement, >> buried at http://openlibrary.org/developers/licensing >> >> "The Internet Archive does not assert any new copyright or other >> proprietary rights over any of the material in the Open Library >> database. There may be existing rights issues on some contributions >> and in some jurisdictions. When it comes to community projects, the >> legal issues are, frankly, very confusing, but we are attempting to >> make a database that can be openly used for a wide variety of >> purposes. We appreciate all that have contributed." >> >> On 23 February 2013 20:40, Ben Companjen <bencompan...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > On this Open Data Day [0], for some already over, for others just >> > starting, to celebrate, promote and use Open Data (with "open" as in >> > the Open Definition [1]), I would really like to know: under what >> > terms can data from Open Library be used? >> > >> > This question recently surfaced (on the ol-tech list) when John Shutt >> > proposed to add first paragraphs from Wikipedia to work descriptions. >> > Wikipedia's licence requires attribution (which is easily added), but >> > also that the derived work is shared under the same conditions. When >> > someone edits a work or book, she agrees to waive all rights by >> > sharing the content of the edit under CC0 [2]. CC0 is incompatible >> > with CC-BY and CC-BY-SA, because it requires no attribution and >> > certainly no "share alike". >> > >> > In the discussion, Karen pointed at the Terms and conditions of the >> > Internet Archive [3] (that as you know hosts/pays for OL) and that >> > they apply to OL content. They state that IA respects others' >> > copyright (and not much more is said). Tom Morris replied that makes >> > it really difficult to know what usage rights are granted for OL >> > dumps, web data, API data etc. >> > >> > I believe it is important to show (limitations to) what can be done >> > with the OL data and if necessary, clearly state that text with >> > some/all rights restricted (e.g. from Wikipedia) should not be >> > included in OL. >> > >> > Related question: as lots of information was ingested from the Library >> > of Congress and other libraries and Amazon, were there special or >> > general (non-exclusive) agreements that allowed OL to take this data? >> > >> > There may be arguments for "fair use", "facts can't be copyrighted", >> > "LC data is in the public domain", but these are partial answers at >> > best. >> > >> > Enjoy Open Data Day :) >> > >> > Regards, >> > >> > Ben >> > >> > [0] http://opendataday.org >> > [1] http://opendefinition.org >> > [2] http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0 >> > [3] http://archive.org/about/terms.php >> _______________________________________________ >> Ol-discuss mailing list >> Ol-discuss@archive.org >> http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-discuss >> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to >> ol-discuss-unsubscr...@archive.org >> > > _______________________________________________ > Ol-discuss mailing list > Ol-discuss@archive.org > http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-discuss > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to > ol-discuss-unsubscr...@archive.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > Ol-discuss mailing list > Ol-discuss@archive.org > http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-discuss > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to > ol-discuss-unsubscr...@archive.org > >
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