Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Better government through datasets (II)

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, March 17, 2011 3:43pm - 18 Comments

David Eaves lauds the creation of a new open data portal, but questions the fine print (which includes a clause that users ”shall not use the data made available through the GC Open Data Portal in any way which, in the opinion of Canada, may bring disrepute to or prejudice the reputation of Canada”).

The license on data.gc.ca is deeply, deeply flawed. Some might go so far as to say that the license does not make it data open at all – a critique that I think is fair. I would say this: presently the open data license on data.gc.ca effectively kills any possible business innovation, and severally limits the use in non-profit realms.

Tags: David Eaves, open data, open government, Stockwell Day

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OriginalEmily1

'which, in the opinion of Canada'?

Translation…which in the opinion of Harper….

Jan

Nicknamed the Stalin clause.

OriginalEmily1

Our country does seem to be getting more Stalinesque all the time. Creeping up on us in a gentle Canadian way.

An outrage here, an outrage there….and then a blue sweater interval before another outrage.

Dan

So the government that forcibly takes our money each year through taxes, uses that money to generate data sets and then tells us that we can look at the data but not use it in any way tp embarrass the entity that took our money by force?

And to top it off, the aforementioned government will be the judge of what is an embarrassing use of the data set.

I have seen evil, and its initials are SJH
john g

Utterly ridiculous.
Crit_Reasoning

It's absurd to put any restrictions on the use of the data. The data belongs to all Canadians, and people should feel free to use it however they want to.

They need to change the fine print.

Dave

They need to abolish Crown Copyright.

D.D.S

…"in the opinion of Canada"……who's Canada??…..whose opinion are we talking about here?…..

Mike T.

I am afraid the likely answer would run afoul of the conditions of use of the government's new open data portal.
LaxAtlDfwYow

"Canada" is defined in the opening 'graph of the license. It's boilerplate but amounts to the "the government of the day".

So, yes, technically one could argue that using the data to embarrass the Government, is a prohibited use. The reality is such that any government pursuing a party so using the data would just be further embarrassing themselves

The provision is gratuitous and really should not be there, but isn't a substantive hurdle to using the data. The remainder of the license is really quite reasonable. (Although one really should compare with other nations. I have not.)

Reverend_Blair

<div class="idc-message" id="idc-comment-msg-div-135674289"><a class="idc-close" title="Click to Close Message" href="javascript: IDC.ui.close_message(135674289)">Close Message Comment posted. <a class="idc-share-facebook" target="_new" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.macleans.ca%2F2011%2F03%2F17%2Fbetter-government-through-datasets-ii%2F%23idc-cover#IDComment135674289&t=I%20just%20commented%20on%20Better%20government%20through%20datasets%20(II)%20-%20Beyond%20The%20Commons%20-%20Macleans.ca" style="text-decoration: none;">Share on Facebook or <a href="javascript: IDC.ui.close_message(135674289)">Close MessageIf I was rich and bored, I might just make a point of using the data in ways that would challenge the Harper to take me to court.