[OSM-legal-talk] local copyright law on government data and OSM license

[Kathleen Lu]

A few thoughts:

I'd want to talk to a Philippine lawyer, because frankly, these two
sentences seem to contradict each other:
*No copyright shall subsist in any work of the Government of the
Philippines. However, prior approval of the government agency or office
wherein the work is created shall be necessary for exploitation of such
work for profit*

What would be the consequences of not getting permission? A violation of
the government's non-copyright rights? Rights of what? I didn't think the
Philippines had database rights, but there could well be some other
non-copyright law.

Looking online, I found this on the National Mapping authority's website:
Can I edit and use the NAMRIA maps for business? Article III of NAMRIA
Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) states that "the second party shall use the
digital data acquired from NAMRIA only for its own authorized purpose and
not for commercial purpose. If digital is sold to other parties, the Second
Party shall pay the full cost of the digital data and its royalties". This
applies only to digital maps (scanned/vector) purchased from NAMRIA.
http://www.namria.gov.ph/faq.aspx

So one question I would have is whether the data source in question is
digital data acquired from NAMRIA?

I also found this list
http://www.geoportal.gov.ph/resources/PGPDataInventorywithSW&Trng.pdf which
seems to indicate that at least some government geodata has no restrictions
on it. With respect to at least those datasets, it would seem that
*explicit permission with respect to OSM* is unnecessary. I didn't see a
source for the letters mentioned in this list, but it's possible that some
of the data restrictions would not be a problem for OSM, but they'd have to
be examined on a letter by letter basis.

Best,
-Kathleen


On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 6:17 PM Erwin Olario <govvin at gmail.com> wrote:

> Recently, some edits in the country came to the  attention of the
> community and have been found to be derived from government data.
> Volunteers in the community, after advising the DWG of the process and
> action plan, are undertaking the rollback of affected edits.
>
> In our community, the current practice follows the general recommendation,
> that  no (Philippine government) data should be added into OpenStreetMap,
> unless explicit permission has been obtained from the originating
> agency/office/owners that the data will be added in OSM, under ODbL.
>
> The relevant local law on government data, states Republic Act 8293
> <https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1997/06/06/republic-act-no-8293/>,
> section 176:
> "*Works of the Government. ‑ 176.1. No copyright shall subsist in any
> work of the Government of the Philippines. However, prior approval of the
> government agency or office wherein the work is created shall be necessary
> for exploitation of such work for profit. Such agency or office may, among
> other things, impose as a condition the payment of royalties. No prior
> approval or conditions shall be required for the use for any purpose of
> statutes, rules and regulations, and speeches, lectures, sermons,
> addresses, and dissertations, pronounced, read or rendered in courts of
> justice, before administrative agencies, in deliberative assemblies and in
> meetings of public character. (Sec. 9, first par., P.D. No. 49)"*
>
> In the discussions by contributors, there are some who expressed favor a
> more liberal interpretation of this section of the law, that government
> data is ineligible to copyright, hence no permission is necessary from the
> government. And if the end-user has commercial plans for said data, it is
> up to them to apply for said permission from the relevant government
> agencies.
>
> However, this government permission requirement appears to oppose the OSM
> license, wherein OSM data users are only required to attribute, and not
> seek any additional permissions. Hence, our promoted practice of seeking
> the informed consent of data owners.
>
> While the interpretation of the law is not a question of popularity,
> there's no doubt that a more liberal interpretation is desirable for our
> community but I'm wondering if somebody from the licensing WG can provide
> us specific guidance whether a liberal interpretation of this law is
> aligned with the OSM license.
>
> /Erwin
>
>
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