Course notes from Licensing module on MSc programme 2014

1. Licensing Geospatial Data (and Services)
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Roger Longhorn
Communications Director, GSDI Association
ral@alum.mit.edu
Certified by Supported by
Direcció General d’Universitats
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2. 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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3. Taxonomy of Information Access & Use
INFORMATION ACCESS & USE TAXONOMY
Discovery
(portals)
Publication
(services)
ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS / VALUE TO SOCIETY
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4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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’.

7. 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’?

8. 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?

9. 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’

10. 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.

11. 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).

12. 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.

13. 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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14. 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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15. 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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16. 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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17. 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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18. 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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19. 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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20. 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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21. 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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22. 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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23. 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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24. 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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