Licensing Geospatial Data (and Services)-

Roger LonghornCommunications Director, GSDI Association

ral@alum.mit.edu

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Why look at licensing issues?

1. You cannot use, add value or re-use what you cannot find, access, share or exploit. (Value of services versus data)

2. Data owners/custodians are always protective of their data –one of their most valuable (intangible) assets, regardless if they mean to sell it or simply to control its use/prevent misuse.

3. Since licenses are used universally to protect IPR (intellectual property rights) in many sectors of our society and industry, licensing is equally important in protecting data and information.

4. License harmonisation and interoperability is just as important as data harmonisation and services interoperability.

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Taxonomy of Information Access & Use

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Taxonomy of Information Access & Use

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Government Data Policy …

Drives Organisational data policy (for both private and public institutions).

Drives development of Implementing Regulations at national – and transnational level (e.g. EU – INSPIRE, PSI Re-use, etc.).

Drives Organisational data practices to implement data policy.

Has a direct impact on who can access what data and how that data can be used – or not.

Monitoring and enforcement measures (of regulations).

Regulations change over time, e.g. as technology changes.

Taxonomy of Information Access & Use

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Organisational Data Policy …

Should (must?) adhere to national principles and regulations.

Should (must?) follow or support regional (trans-national) regulations (e.g. EC Regulations for INSPIRE, PSI Re-use or global conventions such as those of WMO, IHO, IOC).

Policy implementation methods can vary – as long as they adhere to the spirit (and letter?) of the law.

Monitoring and enforcement measures (of regulations).

Implementing data policy involves ‘transaction’ costs for government agencies – and end-users.

Taxonomy of Information Access & Use

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PSI v. non-PSI data

What is Public Sector Information (PSI)? Definitions vary, complicating rules/regulations development and harmonisation.

Definition is blurred when government agency engages in ‘other’ data collection work or services provision.

Different regulations apply to PSI versus non-government data.

But some rules apply to both classes of data – e.g. personal privacy protection, exemptions for national security, etc. (various EU Directives and Regulations apply).

Commercial data is linked to PSI if firms add value to PSI and then sell/re-sell – the underpinning drive to expand a national or European ‘Information Market’.

Taxonomy of Information Access & Use

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PSI – Publication and Discovery Issues

What to publish – or not – and how much – and how often – and ‘for free’ or ‘for a fee’?

Harmonised (standardised) versus proprietary (non-standard) data formats – cost implications for both approaches.

Harmonisation and interoperability are main drivers for INSPIRE and Directives underpinned by INSPIRE

Services to locate data resources – i.e. discovery portals – cost to standardize across government? Across States?

Services to access data resources – free to use or only ‘for a fee’?

Taxonomy of Information Access & Use

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PSI – Viewing Issues

Viewing PSI is usually a free service (to the user), but has a real cost to the provider.

Development, implementation, maintenance, updating, monitoring, ‘Help Desk’, etc.)

Is there also a benefit?

‘Viewing’ can be implemented many ways, including hard copy (printed documents) and not just digitally or online.

Case: property info in some USA states

If a service is free or the data being viewed is free – does it need licensing?

Taxonomy of Information Access & Use

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PSI – Use Issues for Licensing

Who uses – own department, other agencies, other governments, 3rd parties (government, private, NGOs, citizens)?

Do different types of user require different license terms?

For what purpose – permissions and restrictions.

Do different uses require different license terms?

Use ‘for free’ or ‘for a fee’?

Open Data (‘free’) v. cost-recovery

Impact on licensing terms – liability, warranty, fitness for purpose, etc.

Sharing and Re-use are sub-classes of ‘Use’

Taxonomy of Information Access & Use

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PSI – Sharing Issues

Share with whom? For what purpose?

Share how? Cost of sharing? Control sharing by licensing?

Impact of ‘sharing’ data on license terms

Original data versus ‘derivative works’ when altered by 3rd party or value added.

Misuse of data? Misrepresentation of data?

Many EU Directives focus on sharing PSI data, especially with and within the EC, the EEA, EU governments, with citizens, businesses.

Taxonomy of Information Access & Use

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PSI – Re-use Issues

EU and national legislation driven by desire to increase size of national/regional Information Market (since 1988!)

“Data has value only when it is used”.

Increase the value of spatial (location-based) data across society.

PSI Re-use Directive (2003/98/EC and amended as 2013/37/EU).

Re-use implies data leaving custodianship of the original owner.

Licensing becomes more important if the owner is to retain any sort of ‘control’ (even ‘soft touch’) to prevent abuses and misuse ‘downstream’ or to secure financial gain (cost recovery in the case of PSI).

Taxonomy of Information Access & Use

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PSI – Exploitation

For profit – value added to PSI for commercial purposes, by 3rd parties (or owner agency)

Increases size of Information Market

Positive impact on economies and society (employment, taxes)

Not for profit – value added by non-profit organisations (NPOs), citizens

Expands use of original data, typically to benefit society in some way.

VGI, crowd sourcing – can add value to official (and commercial!) datasets in different ways.

Exploitation introduces even more licensing considerations.

Harmonisation and interoperability become ever more important.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

If we did not care about protecting our data/information, we would not need IPR !

‘Public Domain’ data/information – open to all, unrestricted use

Copyright – protecting ‘fixed’ works

Berne Convention (1886 to 1979)

WIPO Copyright Treaty (1996)

EC Harmonisation of Copyright Directive (2001 & 2006)

Protecting purely digital works – evolving practice

Cannot copyright ‘facts’, hence databases not protected

So…EU Database Protection Directive (1996).

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Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Protecting software

Software is used to provide viewing, access, sharing and use services.

Access to, and use of, such services has licensing implications.

EU Directive 91/250/EEC & 93/98/EEC apply to software.

Cases where data is ‘free’ but the service to access it is not (USA).

Patents – can protect ‘business methods’ in some jurisdictions (typically not in the EU)

So search algorithms, mapping visualisation techniques, etc. can be protected.

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Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

Why does IPR matter?

IPR legislation and regulations are what protect our information assets.

Establishes rules (national, regional and global) for what can and cannot be done with data and information – use, misuse.

Terms of protection vary – length, what is covered & what not, means of redress or enforcement for violations.

These issues and more have implications on how licenses are developed and applied across different types of information products

from raw data (satellite imagery, survey results) to value-added products (‘maps’) and services (location based services).

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Geospatial PSI & Licensing

Geospatial data produced by public sector bodies is ‘PSI’ first – and ‘geo’ second!

So…Geo-PSI is governed by national and regional regulations relating to e-government/PSI data, e.g. PSI Re-use, as well as any regulations relating more directly to ‘location based’ information, e.g. INSPIRE, Aarhus, Access to Environmental Information, etc.

Leads to tensions between initiatives to ‘harmonise’ licenses for ‘geodata’ (ESDIN, One Geology) vesus those to ‘harmonise’ licenses for PSI generally (LAPSI 2.0).

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Geospatial PSI & Licensing

INSPIRE on licensing

Chapter V - Data-Sharing - Article 17 – para (3):

Member States may allow public authorities that supply spatial data sets and services to license them to, and/or require payment from, the public authorities or institutions and bodies of the Community that use these spatial data sets and services.

Any such charges and licenses must be fully compatible with the general aim of facilitating the sharing of spatial data sets and services between public authorities.

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Geospatial PSI & Licensing

PSI Re-use (2003)

This Directive should apply to documents that are made accessible for re-use when public sector bodies license, sell, disseminate, exchange or give out information.

In some cases the re-use of documents will take place without a licence being agreed. In other cases a licence will be issued imposing conditions on the re-use by the licensee dealing with issues such as liability, the proper use of documents, guaranteeing non-alteration and the acknowledgement of source. If public sector bodies license documents for re-use, the licence conditions should be fair and transparent. Standard licences that are available online may also play an important role in this respect. Therefore Member States should provide for the availability of standard licences.

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Geospatial PSI & Licensing

PSI Re-use (2013) – Preamble para 26

In relation to any re-use that is made of the document, public sector bodies may impose conditions, where appropriate through a licence, such as acknowledgment of source and acknowledgment of whether the document has been modified by the re-user in any way.

Any licences for the re-use of public sector information should in any event place as few restrictions on re-use as possible, for example limiting them to an indication of source.

Open licences available online, which grant wider re-use rights without technological, financial or geographical limitations and relying on open data formats, should play an important role in this respect.

Therefore, Member States should encourage the use of open licences that should eventually become common practice across the Union.

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Geospatial PSI & Licensing

PSI Re-use (2013) – Preamble para 36

The Commission should assist the Member States in implementing this Directive in a consistent way by issuing guidelines, particularly on recommended standard licences, datasets and charging for the re-use of documents, after consulting interested parties.

In Article 8 (of 2003), paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:

‘1. Public sector bodies may allow re-use without conditions or may impose conditions, where appropriate through a licence. These conditions shall not unnecessarily restrict possibilities for re-use and shall not be used to restrict competition.’.

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Geospatial PSI & Licensing

PSI Re-use (2003 and 2013) attempt(ed) to prevent:

Exclusive licenses, leading to…

Anti-competitive positions (‘official’ data sources leading to monopoly providers, in practice)

Charging regimes that would restrict (more) wide use of PSI

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Geospatial PSI & Licensing

PSI Re-use (2003 and 2013) attempt(ed) to prevent:

Article 6 – Principles Governing Charging

“Where charges are made for the re-use of documents, those charges shall be limited to the marginal costs incurred for their reproduction, provision and dissemination.” But several exceptions!

Article 7 – Transparency

“In the case of standard charges for the re-use of documents held by public sector bodies, any applicable conditions and the actual amount of those charges, including the calculation basis for such charges, shall be pre-established and published, through electronic means where possible and appropriate.”

Licensing implications!

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Geospatial PSI & Licensing

Different users and different roles

Government to government

Government to EU institutions

Government to citizens

Government to 3rd parties (for value adding, whether ‘for profit’ or not)

Exemptions nearly always apply

Personal privacy

National security

Prejudicial to judicial proceedings.

Etc.

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Open Data Initiatives

Let’s move on to what has become an important driver for access to and use of PSI generally and

geospatial data particularly (any data with a ‘location’ attribute) – Open Data initiatives at

national, regional and global levels.

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