• home
• starter pack
• diagnostic tools
• blog
• events
• about us

10 Min Blog #15 Free vs Fee

March 20th, 2012 by Naomi Korn

Following a discussion on Webinar last week about Open Innovation, this blog struck me as highly relevant to the discussion by unpicking issues associated with:

- How free and fee can co-exist

- Identifying the value proposition

- Understanding users – their needs and wants

“Last Friday night, I attended the joint JISC/CC Event at the Wellcome Trust – the #PowerofOpen. The event focussed on how the “explosion of openness” (i.e. individuals increasingly use of CC licences, Govt. committment to open principles and release of data, databases etc under CC and other open licences etc) has created  a “global intellectual commons”. Moreover, beyond the use of CC licences to enhance culture and education, the use of these tools has created a a platform for open innovation. This latter point was articulated by the personal experiences of Jonathan Worth, a professional photographer (@jDubbyah) http://www.jonathanworth.com/

Jonathan spoke about how previously, when he asserted an “All Rights Reserved” restriction on the use of images online, his time was spent monitoring and enforcing his rights. This was followed by, in many cases, his over-compensating with generosity, when he found that “infringing” users of his images were using them for innocent purposes (such as use on personal blogs by 12 year old girls).

Jonathan spoke about an experiment he conducted with Cory Doctorow, the Science Fiction writer (@doctorow) to release a high resolution image taken of him by Jonathan under the most open CC licence, CC BY, together with signed prints made available at different pricing models and levels of exclusivity. Although this sort of action is on the surface, counter-intuitive in business – i.e. we want to control our crown jewels, and particularly in the case of photographs which are so copyable – the most expensive prints sold out first! In this way, Jonathan used CC BY to virally promote his photographs to a global audience, allowing them to reuse and adapt freely, thus building a market for those who wanted and would be willing to spend on more valuable “keepsakes”. Jonathan realised that commercial value in the photographs diminishes everytime that the images are reproduced, whilst at the same time, the cultural value increases and therefore, a market can be created in value-added commodities, such as signed prints. As a matter of course, Jonathan now makes his photos available under a CC BY NC SA  licence.

I wanted to share this story particularly with OER funded projects because of issues associated with sustainability of the resources that you are creating, but also the business models that you might consider moving forward associated with OERs in times of economic hardship. Jonathan is not alone in using the web to make his business work for him, rather than seeing it and openness as a threat. Of course, there are costs associated with making works open, but I believe costs and value are not mutually inclusive and understanding where the value lies in the resources, in the services, in the skills, brand etc that the resources can promote, is clever business modelling and can be added to the portfolio of business models that your institution embraces. I think that it also demonstrates the need to take a holistic view of “audiences”, “services” “access” etc across any organisation to ensure that the opportunities of the web can be optimised.

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Got an OER/IPR question?

December 1st, 2011 by Alex Dawson

OER IPR Online Consultations – December 6^th 2011

Have you got some IPR/licensing issues you’d like to talk through with the OER IPR Support team? If so, we would like to hear from you. We are holding private consultations for OER projects via Skype on Tuesday December 6^th 2011, so get in touch with us, and book a 20 minute consultation, and we’ll talk through the issues.

To book an appointment email alex@web2rights.com with your Skype user name. Appointments are available at 2.00, 2.20, 2.40, 3.00, 3.20, and 3.40 – let us know your preferred time, and your second choice if possible.

Look forward to hearing from you!

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Open Data and Non Commercial Musings

November 30th, 2011 by Naomi Korn

On Thursday I attended an event hosted by the Open Knowledge Foundation on Cultural Heritage Organisations and Open Data. Jill Cousins, Director The European Library and Executive Director, Europeana, provided an overview of some of the key issues associated with opening up access to data. It struck me that many of these issues are relevant to the types of discussions that host organisations of JISC/HEA funded OER funded projects might wish to consider regarding OERs and the ramifications for their organisations. These issues are based on  Europeana’s second White Paper http://group.europeana.eu/web/europeana-project/whitepapers/ “The Problem of the Yellow Milk Maid”.

Benefits of opening access to data:
1. Increasing relevance
2. Increasing channels to end users
3. Brand Value
4. Opening up possible opportunities for funding
5. Fulfillment of public mission
6. Reaching new audiences
7. Building expertise
8. Desirable spill-over effects
9. Discoverability
10. Enrichment of content/data

The rationale behind this is that the more “open” the licence, i.e. the licence which places the least restrictions on the user (such as CC Zero), the more these benefits can be realised. Of course, many organisations are simultaneously grappling with issues of wanting to retain control, whilst trying to balance this with providing enhanced access and use of the OER and complying with the terms of HEA/JISC funding which requires projects to ensure both the reuse and repurposing of OERs – thus negating the use of either the “ND” or “NC” restrictions.

Retaining the ability to use the “NC” restriction seems to be more of an issue than retaining the “ND” restriction for HEA/JISC funded OER Projects and other organisations wishing to licence access to their materials using CC or similar open content licence. I believe that this arises from the lack of clarity as to what “non comemrcial” really means and the envisaged negative impact for HEI’s and other organisations for their business activities if material is licensed for commercial reuse. Owen Stephens unpicks these issues in his blog in more detail http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/11/wired-releases-images-via-creative-commons-but-reopens-a-debate-on-what-noncommercial-means/ whilst a consortium of academics have just published an academic paper on the unexpected reuse restrictions of the “NC” restriction on biodiversity information http://www.pensoft.net/journals/zookeys/article/2189/creative-commons-licenses-and-the-non-commercial-condition-implications-for-the-re-use-of-biodiversity-information

A few months ago, I also blogged about the Power of Open Event and the positive unexpected consequences of permitting commercial reuse linked to understanding the value proposition and how in fact, the free can beautifully co-exist with the fee: http://www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport/blog/?p=180

I still think that licensing out access to assets and the choice of licences is much more strategic than we currently think and do. The issue of whether we assert an “NC” restriction is a symptom of this, rather than the real issue. I believe that we need to get better at adding the big issues of control, access, sustainability and risk management into the broader pot of who we are, what we do, what we want to achieve now and in the future,  and how we intend to do it.

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

JISC/HEA funded OER Projects – IPR Workshops, Leicester December 6th

November 22nd, 2011 by Alex Dawson

PLEASE RESERVE YOUR PLACE BY 25TH NOVEMBER 2011

The OER IPR Support Team will be holding two free half day workshops on Tuesday 6th December 2011 at the Kimberlin Library, De Montfort University, Leicester.

See http://www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport/events.html for programmes.

The workshops are:

Before You Start from 10.00 – 12.30am
OER IPR Master Class from 2.00 – 4.30pm

Before You Start is aimed at anyone beginning an OER project who would like an introduction to the essential IPR and licensing issues which are likely to be of relevance to their OER Project, such as how to seek permissions, what permissions to ask for and an introduction to Creative Commons licences.

The OER IPR Master Class is aimed at those who already have some OER/licensing knowledge and wish to discuss specific issues relating to IPR and licensing such as attribution stacking, licence interoperability, commercial versus non commercial use, and open innovation business models.

The workshops will be led by two members of the OER IPR Support Project Team – Naomi Korn, Web2Rights Ltd and Jason Miles-Campbell, JISC Legal.

Places are limited, so if you are interested in attending, please email alex@web2rights.com to reserve a place.
Representatives from OER Projects are welcome to register for attendance at either workshop or both workshops.
Lunch will not be provided, however there will be light refreshments.

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Jason’s Five Quick Top Tips of OER

November 14th, 2011 by JISC Legal

It’s greetings from the JISC / Higher Education Academy OER Phase 3 start-up meeting at Birmingham.  I’m just about to do a short presentation along with Alex Dawson introducing the Phase 3 projects to their OER IPR Support.

I’m keeping my contribution to-the-point in this session, and here’s the synopsis of my five quick-and-dirty top tips.

As always, we’ll be around to help projects with their IPR and other legal issues, and we’re interested to hear about your experiences in dealing with these issues too.

Cheers, and good luck,

Jason of JISC Legal

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Welcome to the OER IPR Support Project

November 12th, 2011 by Naomi Korn

Over the next year, we will again be supporting JISC/HEA funded projects in the OER Themes strand of the Embedding and Sustaining Change programme, which focuses on the collection, creation and release of Open Educational Resources (OERs).

The OER IPR Support team is here to give guidance to JISC/HEA funded projects on:

• selecting and embedding the most appropriate open licences for OERs, with an emphasis on Creative Commons.
• identifying and managing the IPR and other legal issues residing in OERs

The OER IPR Support team consists of Naomi Korn and Alex Dawson from Web2Rights Ltd, the JISC Legal team, led by Jason Miles-Campbell, and Neil Witt from Plymouth University. For our team, this is the second year of providing support to JISC OER projects – so this year’s projects will be able to benefit from all of the resources, advice and support collected together on our project website at www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport/index.html

If you visit our website, www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport, you will find a range of practical tools including charts, videos, template licences, and model forms which will help you to manage the licensing of your resources. You can also find out more about relevant issues, discussion topics and news by reading our project blog at www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport/blog. We tend to blog every week in the form of a 10 Min Blog, so do check in for updates. You can follow us on here twitter (@OERIPRSupport) to keep updated as well. You can also put queries to the JISC Legal Helpdesk at www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ContactUs/EnquiryForm.aspx – a free, quick-turnaround telephone and email support service.

If you are a new project it may be helpful to go to the Starter Pack at www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport/starter.html. Don’t forget that there are still places on our FREE Before You Start workshop at De Montfort University on the morning of December 6th 2011. Contact Alex@web2rights.com if you are a JISC/HEA funded Phase 3 project and would like to attend.

For projects with some experience of licensing and OERs, we have new resources planned for the next 12 months which reflect and explore many of the issues raised over the last year. You also may like to sign up for our for the free OER IPR Master Class workshop at De Montfort University on the afternoon of December 6th 2011. Contact Alex@web2rights.com if you are a JISC/HEA funded Phase 3 project and would like to attend.

We are looking forward to working with you over the coming year, and meeting up with you at the JISC Start Up Meeting in Birmingham on the 14th November 2011.

Best wishes

OER IPR Support Team

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

10 Min Blog #14: CC or not CC?

August 29th, 2011 by Naomi Korn

This blog has been inspired by a discussion with Mike Sanders from Plymouth University about the legitimacy of using CC licensed content.

*********************

CC licensed content is ideal for repurposing and reusing as OER, depending upon the types of permissions associated with the content. Tools such the Xpert Attribution Tool http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert/attribution/provide automated searches and retrieval of content licensed under CC (and/or GNL licences) as well as public domain works. The CC site http://search.creativecommons.org/ provides access to search engines which themselves provide links to CC licensed content.

So, what is the problem? The CC site goes some way to explain the problem “Since there is no registration to use a CC license, CC has no way to determine what has and hasn’t been placed under the terms of a CC license. If you are in doubt you should contact the copyright holder directly, or try to contact the site where you found the content.”, but this needs further unpicking.

By means of an example, a few minutes ago, I used the Xpert Attribution Tool to carry out a search using the keyword “Picasso”. The search pulled out 1513 images associated with the Picasso keyword http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert/attribution/index.php?searchterm=picasso&x=30&y=19. Many of these images were photos of various places associated with Picasso, sculptures made by Picasso located in public places (the photography of which is an exception under UK copyright laws) and similar images. Included within the 1513 images, were images of other works Picasso licensed under various types of CC licences. Normally, the rights in works by Picasso are administered directlyby the Picasso Administration http://www.picasso.fr/us/picasso_page_index.php or via The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) http://www.dacs.org.uk/ (if the user of the image is based in the UK). The Picasso Administration and DACS are very unlikely to allow any works by Picasso (who is still in copyright) to licensed out under any CC licences, particularly those permitting derivatives or under the terms of Share Alike licence.  They tend to grant permissions in return for a fee, on a case by case basis and are particuarly keen to ensure that any images that are reproduced accurately reproduce the quality of the original works.

So the the problem here, and with some CC licensed content is that there are no technical or standard based restrictions whatsoever in preventing anyone from uploading any type of resource and licensing it out under the flavour of CC licences of their choice. Coupled with the following (or similar) binding terms and conditions found in all CC licences “….

5. Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer

UNLESS OTHERWISE MUTUALLY AGREED TO BY THE PARTIES IN WRITING, LICENSOR OFFERS THE WORK AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE WORK, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTIBILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THE ABSENCE OF LATENT OR OTHER DEFECTS, ACCURACY, OR THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF ERRORS, WHETHER OR NOT DISCOVERABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SUCH EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

6. Limitation on Liability. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THIS LICENSE OR THE USE OF THE WORK, EVEN IF LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

The issue here and nicely summed up by Mike, is “…user beware”. If it looks too good to be true and the quality, profile or reputation of the licensor of the CC-licensed resource is in any way dubious, the resource should not be used and/or the rights holder contacted for permission. The search and retrieval tools, such as Xpert Attribution are without doubt superbly useful for finding CC-licensed resources, but the user needs to exert caution and not rely on the automated tools for assessing if a resource can be legally used. The ramifications of such use mean that the ultimate liability will vest with the user of the resource, with little recourse from the Licensor of the resource.

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

10 Minute Blog #13: Hargreaves Distilled and the potential impact for Education and Research

August 6th, 2011 by Naomi Korn

In case you have not heard already, the UK’s Government has just endorsed the implementation of the all the Recommendations outlined by Professor Ian Hargreaves in his Review of Intellectual Property and Growth. You can find the Hargreaves Review of IP here: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipreview.htm The recommendations have also been accepted  by the Government, which has been reiterated in a recent BIS report:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/innovation/docs/i/11-1387-innovation-and-research-strategy-for-growth.pdf

The Government’s Response here: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipresponse-full.pdf

Much has been written already about the implications of the  Hargreaves Review of IP Recommendations, (see my new “Naomi Korn #Copyright Weekly” for more info http://paper.li/f-1311959301), but here in distillation, are 10 things you really SHOULD know about what has happened so far and what it means for education and research, including JISC funded Projects:

1. The Recommendations outlined by Professor Hargreaves were a response to an-evidence-led consultation, to which JISC, the BL and many others from across the public sector, creative industries, consumer groups,  rights holders etc responded as well as those with a commercial interests. You can read the responses here: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ipreview/ipreview-c4e.htm

2. JISC, amongst others, made the fundamental case that UK copyright law needs to be modernized and simplified to ensure creators, innovators, researchers and consumers can all capture the full range of benefits offered by the Internet and digital technologies. JISC has just issued a press release welcoming the Govt. endorsement of Hargreaves http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2011/08/hargreaves.aspx

3. In his Report, Professor Hargreaves acknowledged that in terms of its IP framework, and particularly the relationship of the current copyright framework to  the digital age, the UK is falling behind and needs to adapt to the challenges of new technologies to ensure future innovation and growth.

4. The Govt. has endorsed the implementation of ALL the 10 key Recommendations outlined in Professor Hargreaves Report. The implementation of these measures are likely to add between 0.3 – 0.6% to the growth of the UK’s economy by 2020 which is worth up to £7.9 billion pounds. The programme of consultation about the implementation of the Hargreaves Recommendations, is likely to start in the Autumn 2011.

5. Of specific relevance to the needs of researchers, teachers and learners, the Govt. has agreed with Recommendation 1, that the UK’s IP Policy should be driven by evidence, balancing economic objectives and the needs of various groups. This means that future IP Policy changes should be responsive to the needs of our sector and in particular our use of new technologies within the context of teaching, learning and research. This is obviously a good thing and will ensure that needs determine future change, rather than necessarily, IP Policy changes driven by those with the loudest voices and deepest pockets.

6. The Govt. is supporting the concept of the creation of a Digital Copyright Exchange (DEC) – Recommendation 5. This will potentially stream-line the potentially onerous and costly tasks of tracing rights holders and rights clearance, faced by JISC funded projects such as the digitisation and OER strands, by making it easier for rights owners to be identified and then for them to licence their works more easilyto users. The Government has stated that the DCE will include Crown Copyright materials from day one. For users of the DCE, such as JISC funded projects, the DCE will potentially lead to cost savings in making it easier to locate rights holders and seek permissions to use their works. Works, such as Crown Copyright works, already licensed out under an Open Government Licence, and presumably other works licensed out under open content licences, such as Creative Commons licences, will then be more easily found – thus representing real cost savings for HEIs and FEIs.

7. Solutions for cross border licensing, potential regulation of collecting societies and proposed solutions for the use of orphan works (encompassed within Recommendations 3 and 4) will assist both mass digitisation projects, as well as single use of orphan works and thus open up access and use of important research and cultural heritage resources within parameters which recognise non-commercial use of the works, such as uses by JISC funded digitisation and OER projects.

8. The creation of a rafter of new exceptions to copyright as well as the implementation of the widest possible exceptions to copyright within the existing EU framework outlined with Recommendation 5 will lead to a wealth of benefits within the contexts of teaching, learning and research. Proposed new exceptions include:

- A new exception for data and text mining – which will revolutionise how researchers, industry etc can legitimately search, retrieve, process and connect data and text from potentially millions of publications on the internet, leading to the optimisation of research findings, greater innovation and growth.

-  A new exception for parody- facilitating the legitimate use and creation of works which satire etc existing works. This will be poignant for JISC projects which may create or use parodying works, as well as felt more broadly within the contexts of teaching, learning and research

- A new exception for library archiving

- Widening the copyright exception for non commercial research to all classses of work for non commercial research, which will legitimize the reproduction of sound recordings and films, for example, for these purposes

- Other new copyright exceptions outlined within Article 5 of the Info Soc Directive 2001/29, such as  the use [of a work in copyright] for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching or scientific research, as long as the source, including the author’s name, is indicated, unless this turns out to be impossible and to the extent justified by the non-commercial purpose to be achieved

9. Ensuring that current and future exceptions to copyright (such as the hugely important new proposed exception for data and text mining) are safe-guarded in law, by future-proofing the current legislative and regulatory framework as well as preventing the terms and conditions of contracts from over-riding the exceptions to copyright. This latter measure specifically, will  rectify the current situations whereby:

- Academics and researchers may licence or even assign their rights to publishers in return for the publication, but at the same time, these agreements may often restrict them (and their institutions) from being able to use their works under the exceptions to copyright.

- Librarians and information professionals may find that the contracts accompanying the supply of their print and/or electronic resources, may also over-ride their entitlement to use these resources under the copyright exceptions.

- HEIs and FEIs may purchase blanket licences from rights holder representatives, which may either negate certain uses under the exceptions to copyright, and/or charge for those uses (as well as many others)

10. It appears that this is the last chance saloon for this Parliament in terms of major review of the IP system. The current Government has stated that it has committed to no additional major reviews of the IP system this Parliament, although there are a number of European Commission and WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation) led consultations currently being discussed. These include the EC Green Paper on the Online distribution of audio visual performances and the WIPO informal consultations on print disabilities and audio visual performances.

In terms of next steps, the Intellectual Property Office has already started the consultation process for the Digital Copyright Exchange and should be launching the formal consultation process for many of the recommendations including Orphan Works by Mid December. The response to this consulation process is expected to last 3 months – so 3 important months to support these important recommendations with robust evidence!

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

10 Minute Blog #12: Free, costs and Starbucks

July 18th, 2011 by Naomi Korn

I was in Starbucks yesterday to buy a coffee and picked up a free bag of coffee grounds, which was in a wicker basket with an attached note which explained that the coffee grounds were free. I took one bag for me and one for my mother-in-law and then bought an expensive coffee, some cakes and big gold coins for the kids.  Everyone was happy – me, my mother-in-law, the kids and Starbucks. Starbucks was thrilled because although the coffee grounds were free,  the “goodwill” of giving me something for “free”, had probably meant that I spent more than I might have done otherwise.

Yesterday’s experience at Starbucks got me thinking -

So were those coffee grounds really free?

Not really. They were the waste product of a transaction paid for by another customer (the next coffee grounds in the basket would have been the by-product of my paid for coffee), so effectively, they were covered in the cost of my coffee. I had then paid for the privilege of disposing of the grounds and then paid some more by buying more than I needed from Starbucks. So, in this context, free means “free” at the point of use, but actually the hidden costs meant that I certainly paid for them (and some).

Can we learn anything from free Starbucks coffee grounds and Open Educational Resources  (OERs)?

Yes. A few things.

1. OERs, like Starbucks ground coffee, are made available for “free” in similar restricted environments, where the default is that something can’t be taken and consumed freely, unless there is a “Take me, I’m free” notice to the contrary. This means that ultimately, consumed goods normally need to be paid for (or special permission sought), whether the goods are consumed from the internet, or taken from Starbucks. In the case of OERs, the free notice would probably take the form of a Creative Commons Licence.

2. Free barely ever means entirely free….somewhere, someone is paying the costs . The majority of inital costs in the production of the coffee grounds are borne by the consumer, whilst the costs of producing the OERs are borne by the OER creator.

3. Free can generate business. Appealing to consumer’s good will, social conscience or environmental tendencies can encourage purchases of charged for services. In a similar way, giving the consumer tasters of quality free products…can also encourage them to purchase charged for services. In a competitive market place, consumers will pay, but they want value for money, quality products and freebies.

My £2.25 coffee cost me £7.80 with all the extras I bought. But I did get a lovely packet of “free”" coffee grounds which smell beautiful and I will be going back to Starbucks soon to see if they have any more “free coffee grounds” (and probably buying another coffee plus, when I am there )

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

10 Minute Blog #11: Open Data Licensing and Arising Issues

July 14th, 2011 by Naomi Korn

Arising Issues associated with Open and Linked Data

Despite the merits of open and linked data, there are a number of arising issues which require consideration on an operational and strategic level:

Attribution Stacking/Lack of Attribution and Authority

Depending upon the licence used and whether it requires the user of the data to attribute (or not) this can lead to two diametrically opposed, but nonetheless problematic repercussions with regards to open data. For instance, the use of any of the CC Licences (apart from CC Zero), OGL and also the ODC-By and ODC-ODbl Data Commons Licence can lead to attribution stacking. This is simply the potential build up of multiple attribution statements which grow every time data is added to and linked.

Conversely, although CCZero is one of the licences that can be used to prevent attribution stacking (as it does not require attribution as one of the conditions), at the same time, attribution can be important as a means to recognise both the source and the authority of the data.

One of the solutions to deal with this issue is the use of CC0 and other similar licences (which do not require attribution) and the inclusion of non-binding suggestions for best practices in attribution. These then can facilitate attribution where appropriate.

Irrevocability and other Strategic Considerations

On a strategic level, committing to the irrevocable terms of open data licences raises issues of broader access and commercial goals for organisations. It also touches upon issues associated with version control.

At a time of re-evaluation across the sector about commercial activities (including an appraisal of the business models which might drive HEIs and FEIs in light of the  recent HE White Paper[1]), the use of open data licences to provide access to data, should be a policy decision and should form part of the overall strategic direction relating to rights management, use and exploitation. In this way, the full implications of open data licensing can be examined and understood, and their potential impact, costs (creation and maintenance) as well as benefits, can be assessed within the contexts of business community engagement, closed proprietary business models and/or open innovation. Releasing data openly, may seem a good idea at the time, but considered in isolation, it might be tantamount to realising short term goals, but at the expense of long term benefits. Conversely, restricting the release of open data to non-commercial uses may preclude other HEIs and FEIs from using the data as their activities become increasing commercial.

Organisations who wish to release their data openly need to ensure that they have appropriate strategic, policy and procedures in place to ensure that they both understand the implications, and that openness is achieved. The OER IPR Support Project will shortly be releasing a tool “How CC Are You” to help organisations rate their level of openness and readiness in terms of CC Licences

Third Party Rights and Lack of Indemnities

Although open data licences may be suitable for many applications, this may not be the case where third party rights issues and/or other legal issues, such as Data Protection[3], are present and require additional clearances or permissions. Moreover, the licences do not guarantee to provide any information about what content does contain third party materials, nor any indemnities for the user in the case that they do – leaving the licensee taking all the risk.

JISC OER funded projects need to be aware of these potential issues, and take appropriate measures to make sure that rights issues are suitably identified and dealt with, by the allocation of the necessary resource and the use of permission clearance tools, such as those developed by the JISC funded OER IPR Support Project – see  www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport.

Licence Proliferation and Licence Interoperability

A number of licences can be used to provide open access to data, and whilst they are broadly similar, they are not all compatible with each other. This lack of interoperability is evident between different licences, such as between the CC and Open Data Commons Licences, as well as between the licences themselves. For example, CC BY SA is incompatible with CC BY ND[4]. The proliferation of licences provides the Licensor with greater choice, but ultimately make the linking of open data more problematic for the user because of the increased problems of compatibility of the licensed data for the user, or simply the complexity of understanding what the user can, and cannot do, with various datasets.

JISC OER funded projects need to be mindful of the reasons why they might need to choose more “closed” licences[5], and have to balance this (and possible risks) against the benefits of making data more open (such as using one of the Truly Open Data Licences[6]). The more open the licence, the less likely the risks of incompatibility of licensed data for the user.

---

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2011/jun/28/david-willetts-white-paper-view

[3] http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/Projects/ConsentManagement.aspx

[4] See http://www.web2rights.com/creativecommons/

[5] http://discovery.ac.uk/files/pdf/Licensing_Open_Data_A_Practical_Guide.pdf

[6] http://discovery.ac.uk/files/pdf/Licensing_Open_Data_A_Practical_Guide.pdf

This content is published under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Next Page »

OER IPR Support RSS Feed

Copyright © 2011 OER IPR Support
Design Credits: Matteo Turchetto | Andreas Viklund