PerSpectIves

Public Consultation on the PSI Directive

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the PSI Directive in which anyone with an interest in public sector information re-use is invited to participate. 

The consultation includes questions on the PSI re-use context and possible action to consider, substantive issues regulated by the PSI Directive, practical measures, changes that have taken place, barriers that still exist and other issues. 

Replies will feed into the debate on possible policy options that should be considered for the review, and will contribute to the subsequent impact assessment that will be carried out, associated with proposals for possible legislative or other measures.

The consultation closes on 30 November 2010 and further information can be found in the press release and on the Commission's PSI website.

Machinery of Government changes - transfer of records, information and knowledge

A number of public sector organisations are being wound up.  This raises issues from the perspective of the information and the records they created and provision needs to be made for on-going access to this information and these records.  The key issues that public sector organisations, including their parent departments, need to consider are:

 

Public Records:

The need to ensure that all obligations under the Public Records Act 1958 covering the review and preservation of public records are complied with.  The National Archives (TNA) has produced detailed guidance on the transfer of records, information, and knowledge which explains what needs to be done.

 

Copyright: Where the public sector organisation does not have Crown status, consideration should be given to assigning the copyright to the Controller of HMSO (an official in TNA) so that we can ensure that the information continues to be available for re-use;

 

Publishing:  If the organisation being wound up publishes information it may need to make arrangements, perhaps with a parent department, for continuing to make the material available in a published form.

 

For further information or to discuss, please contact the Information Policy Team at TNA psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk

Development of the UK Government Licensing Framework

The UK Government is developing the next generation of its licensing framework for public sector information.  Building on the approach tested for data.gov.uk, part of the new framework is a machine-readable licence suitable for making central government Crown copyright as well as information and data from local government and the wider public sector available for re-use more easily.  The key features are that the new licence will be: non-transactional, in that re-users do not need to obtain individual permission for re-use; free, in that there is no charge for the licence; and it will promote innovation and openness by allowing the re-use and re-purposing of a broad range of public sector information.  In assembling this solution, the Government looked at the Creative Commons and Open Data Commons models, and anticipates a high degree of interoperability between these licences.

 

This licence will form part of the UK Government Licensing Framework.  In those areas where Crown copyright material will be licensed commercially, notably by information-rich trading funds such as The Met Office and the Land Registry, guidance and FAQs will clarify the demarcation and existing regulatory and best practice schemes will continue to set standards.  The Government also envisages that the Framework will provide an ideal opportunity to clarify copyright policy in a number of other areas, including the licensing of software.

 

The team working on the Framework has had input from across the licensing community and will welcome feedback with the beta launch in July.

Licensing and data.gov.uk – further developments

Since our last update, work has been continuing behind the scenes on the development of a new licensing model for government information.  The latest step has seen us working closely with Ordnance Survey on a new licence covering the use of OS OpenData^TM.  

 

Our joint aim has been to make sure that the OS OpenData^TM licence terms and

conditions correspond with those on data.gov.uk and that these terms are in line with the Government’s commitment to “establish a common licence to re-use data which is interoperable with the internationally recognised Creative Commons model”. 

 

The new licence terms go live on the Ordnance Survey and data.gov.uk websites today.

Licensing and data.gov.uk - some feedback from the web

Here are some comments from the internet on our work with the licensing of data.gov.uk: 

 

“We at CC are thrilled by this new development and congratulate the UK for this move...this shift will increase the UK’s capacity to foster reuse, collaboration, and innovation in government and the world… “

 

Jane Park at Creative Commons – UK moves towards opening government data

 

“We, the citizens of the web, know what Creative Commons means: we don't need to    look it up, we won't need a dictionary, and we won't need a lawyer. Good things will happen as a direct result.”

 

Puffbox.com – Creative Commons coming to data.gov.uk

 

“This may seem quite unexciting, but is a big deal!”

Binary Law: Legal Information in the Digital Age – Crown Commons

 

“…it is reasonable to speculate that the uncovering and unlocking of so much information will drive improvements in public policy.”

 

Guardian 23/01/2010 – Government Information: Creative Commons

 

Licensing and data.gov.uk - we are listening

Following last week’s launch of data.gov.uk we have made some changes to the licence terms and conditions on the site in response to some of the feedback we’ve received.

 

We’ve made the changes to make it clear:

 

§  which information is covered by the data.gov.uk terms and conditions

§  that the data can be re-used both commercially and non-commercially

§  that the Crown has no intention of claiming ownership of ideas and applications that users submit to the site.

 

PSI Guidance Review

 

We are in the process of reviewing and revising much of the current guidance on public sector information (PSI), Crown copyright and licensing on the OPSI website. We would like your input so that we can be sure we have covered the relevant and key issues for you and have provided the guidance you need on the above topics in the way you need it.

 

We plan to use PerSpectIves to gather your suggestions and feedback. Please send your responses by commenting on this post.

 

Current guidance

 

Our guidance can be found at the following links:

 

§  Crown copyright guidance

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/crown-copyright/copyright-guidance/index  

§  Publishing guidance

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/official-publications/publishing-guidance/index  

§  PSI Regulations advice and guidance

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/psi-regulations/advice-and-guidance/index  

§  PSI Regulations guidance notes

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/psi-regulations/advice-and-guidance/psi-guidance-notes/index  

§  Range of frequently asked questions (FAQs) 

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/about/faqs.htm  

 

Call for views

 

We would welcome your views on the current guidance with the following questions as a starting point:

 

§  What are the relevant issues for you and what advice do you find most useful?

§  What seems to be missing when you look for guidance on our site, for example, relevant topics not covered?

§  How can we improve the clarity of our current advice and guidance?

§  How can we improve the delivery of our advice and guidance?

 

These are some specific questions but please feel free to send us other comments on our website advice and guidance.

 

The way ahead

 

We will consider responses over the next three months into March 2010 as part of a wider website content review. Responses after this time will still be welcome and encouraged so that we can continue to improve our guidance and respond to your needs.

Licensing and data.gov.uk launch

The data.gov.uk beta website provides a single access point to over 2,500 central government datasets that have been made available for free re-use.

 

We have drafted a simple and enabling set of terms and conditions for the site which means that the data available through data.gov.uk will be re-usable both commercially and non-commercially.  These terms and conditions have been aligned so that they are interoperable with any Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence.  The terms and conditions are also machine readable meaning that the licence is presented and coded in such a way that applications and programs can access and understand the terms and conditions too.

 

This is the first major step towards the adoption of a non-transactional, Creative Commons style approach to licensing the re-use of government information.  The new model will replace the existing Click-Use Licence.  We are working towards the launch of the new licence model by the end of May 2010.

 

The Government’s commitment in Putting the Frontline First: smarter government is to “establish a common licence to re-use data which is interoperable with the internationally recognised Creative Commons model”.  This is key to supporting new information initiatives such as the beta release of data.gov.uk also launched today to promote transparency, public service improvement and economic growth.

 

Regular visitors to this blog will know that in working to meet this commitment we have been examining a range of licensing options with Creative Commons teams in the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand and more recently with the Open Data Commons team in the UK.

 

The Creative Commons 3.0 unported Licence, which has been the focus of our discussions to date, specifically addresses the licensing of copyright content. This licence addresses database rights that are protected by copyright but does not cover other  rights such as the sui generis  database right,  which is a uniquely European Union concept and which is waived in the European versions of the Creative Commons licences.    In licensing terms, databases present specific concerns particularly in the context of derivative works.  For this reason, Open Data Commons came into existence in order to draft “open” licences to meet the requirements of databases and Creative Commons has developed the Creative Commons Zero waiver, designed to waive all copyright and related rights, including the database right.    

 

The Creative Commons teams in the UK are developing a new UK version of their attribution licences for launch in May 2010.  Open Data Commons are planning to release their database attribution licence working to a similar timescale as Creative Commons.

 

We will continue to provide updates on the progress of the new licence model on this blog, but in the meantime we would welcome your feedback.

Intellectual Property Rights Frameworks pilot project launched

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) is calling for public sector organisations planning to commission a digital media project in early 2010 to get involved in a cutting-edge pilot project.

Together with their partners, NESTA has developed six Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Frameworks, designed to offer more flexibility to public organisations looking to procure digital media.

The aim of the pilot is to test these frameworks across different types of public organisations and digital media commissions and evaluate the effectiveness of the frameworks.

The pilot is targeted at public organisations looking to commission new digital media projects. The commissioned projects will be run under one of the frameworks. The impact and effectiveness of the framework for both the public organisation and digital media company will then be evaluated.

For more information visit

www.nesta.org.uk/areas_of_work/creative_industries/digital_innovation/ipr_frameworks438281

Changes to licensing arrangements for Crown copyright information

In an earlier post Exceptions to marginal cost pricing we announced plans for OPSI to cease to licensing the re-use of any Crown copyright content that involves payments.  We can now announce that with effect from 1 December 2009 we are no longer licensing any content that involves payments.  Most information that was previously regarded as value added and licensed under the Value Added Click-Use Licence can now be re-used under the PSI Click-Use Licence.

 

The exceptions to this are information and data produced by those government departments, agencies and trading funds that license Crown copyright information they originate under a delegation of authority granted by the Controller of HMSO. See www.opsi.gov.uk/ifts/ifts-members for a list of these organisations.

 

We are also in discussions with the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and Office for National Statistics (ONS) about the re-use of some of their charged publications. We will clarify the situation as soon as possible. In the meantime anyone wanting to re-use any DCLG or ONS priced publications should contact us directly.