Under Dutch law, much information held by the public sector qualifies for copyright protection (e.g. databases, maps, reports, papers, opinions)....
In general terms, one can conclude the Creative Commons model is suitable only for public sector information with the following access characteristics:
public access is the chief principle (either because the information is subject to the Government Information Act or sector specific regulation), and
access is not granted under cost recovery model (i.e. going beyond charges for the cost of dissemination)....
The idea of licensing information seems at odds with the notion that citizens have a right to access such information under the freedom of information act (Wet openbaarheid van bestuur). The longstanding debate on the relationship between copyright and freedom of information law, shows that it is generally accepted that gaining access under Wob does not dismiss the recipient of the obligation to respect intellectual property rights in the information. This implies that conditioning use is allowed, at least as long as the terms are consistent with the objective of the Wob: by stimulating openness of government information, enabling citizens to influence and control the administration and participate in the democratic process. The most compatible licenses from this perspective are CC-PD and CC-BY....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/01/2008 12:25:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
