List of Datasets on the Web | Hacker News Reader

List of Datasets on the Web

datawrangling.com

31 pointspskomoroch4 comments

I don't want to spoil the fun too much, but if you are subject to EU law (and don't ask me whether that depends on whether the data is European or on whether you are in Europe; I am not a lawyer) you cannot simply grab data of the net on the theory that raw data is not a creative work and thus not copyrighted. Just in case anybody gets it into their head to do innovative things with web-accessible databases of facts, Brussels has given us the wonders of the EU Database Directive, which makes raw data copyrightable. Phone books, registries of commerce, postal code databases, train timetables, and other such things that cannot be copyrighted in the US do fall under a copyright-like _sui generis_ IP regime in the EU.

Not that there isn't a case for sometimes just ignoring the fancy details of the law and going with "do first, ask permission later."

But I thought maybe you should know.

Good point, some of these datasets are open/free...others are not. If anyone is going to use a "seemingly-free" data set in open source code, try to get permission under the appropriate license. There is a good overview of the difficulties here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Data

Well, in that same vein, the Directive "shall not prevent the lawful use of the database by a lawful user" (Art. 6(1)) and more fundamentally, any copyright to issue is subject to traditional limitations to copyright which allow:

-reproduction for private purposes of a non-electronic database;

-use for the sole purpose of illustration for teaching or scientific research, as long as the source is indicated and to the extent justified by the non-commercial purpose to be achieved;

-use for the purposes of public security of for the purposes of an administrative or judicial procedure.

Therefore, if these datasets have been made available for public consumption then, arguably, you may use them for personal use. However, the creation of commercial derivative works may be encumbered.

But thanks for the heads up nonetheless; I'd never heard of it before and it was a fun 10 seconds of research.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celex...

Thanks for passing this link along.

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