Posted by
Russell McOrmond-2 on
Jan 27, 2006; 1:40am
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/Canadian-federal-information-keyed-on-Electoral-District-ID-EDID-tp188p191.html
Daniel Haran wrote:
> AFAIK, every parliamentarian can be emailed at
[hidden email]
This is true for the returning MPs, but the new MPs aren't there yet.
There have also been cases when this system isn't unique.
I'll be waiting until the Library of Parliament makes this
information official on their website, and then using an automated
screen scrape to pull the information out.
> Have you looked into the possibility of redistributing your work as a
> web service? Sometimes when the entire data is not transferred, the
> regular licenses don't apply.
The stuff I'm building myself will not be a problem, and I can
release the "database" under a creative commons license AFAIK.
Where the license agreements will be a problem is with the postal
code to EDID lookup database. If you look at the government license
agreement it doesn't allow it to be a web service. I don't know if the
license is enforceable, but until I speak with lawyers I'm not going to
want to become a target for a government lawsuit. I'd want to make sure
that the government would be embarrassed by such a lawsuit, and that the
political and legal arguments are very clear.
What I believe we need here is collaboration on a political campaign
to try to get this type of government data released (not just this, but
other geospacial data/etc).
I think with the new Conservative minority government there may be an
interest to take a lead from the US which doesn't have the concept of
crown copyright (government data is automatically in the public domain).
While I wouldn't want them to follow the US on other copyright issues,
crown copyright and fair use are two places where we are behind.
--
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <
http://www.flora.ca/>
2415+ Canadians oppose Bill C-60 which protects antiquated Recording,
Movie and "software manufacturing" industries from modernization.
http://KillBillC60.ca Sign-->
http://digital-copyright.ca/petition/