[talk-au] Use of online data without CC BY?

[stevea]

I know you're talking about Australia (or one of its states) and I'm talking about California, one of the USA states.  The area of law I talk about here falls into the realm of "what the state is granted the power to define for itself" due to our 10th Amendment, which basically says the few pages of our national constitution delineate where the federal USA starts and ends, and "the rest is up to the states."

In California, we have what are known as "sunshine laws" or "open data laws" which in essence say that what the state (of California) publishes as data are open to the public.  Sure, there are exceptions carefully carved out in the statute which talk about personnel records and ongoing legal cases and those (and a few other things like certain redacted or protected incarceration records, I think...) are NOT open.  But stuff like "GIS data" are open.  At least two California Supreme Courts (both specific to GIS data) make this clear (legal cites are elsewhere, but I can find them or you can, too).

Whether Queensland has such law (and stare decisis), I don't know, but that's what "guides" here, maybe (you are "lucky" like this, too) and it does for Queensland and data published by an entity of or that is Queensland, too.  (Like in USA, a state like California's divisions, or "counties" are really simply divisions of the state, so they ARE the state for purposes of such law like open data laws).

This might seem pretty cut and dry, and certainly, not all states are "as clean and neat and easy" as this, so your mileage may vary, as laws between states and countries can be vastly different.  And, I am not an attorney.

I hope that helps you 11721 clicks away (roughly, it only took JOSM seconds to determine that — good ol' OSM!).  G'luck, mate!

> On Apr 1, 2021, at 8:16 PM, Graeme Fitzpatrick <graemefitz1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Bit of an interesting question, that I'll start here, but which I can see going to the Legal Group for a ruling?
> 
> Started updating hospital details after getting the OK & waiver through from Qld Health to use their data.
> 
> First one on the list was Alpha, which, co-incidentally has just had a brand new combined Health / Emergency Services facility built!
> 
> While checking info about it, I spotted the Barcaldine Council page for Alpha, which has https://www.barcaldinerc.qld.gov.au/tourism/towns/alpha & https://www.barcaldinerc.qld.gov.au/alpha-3, which show details & gives info on POIs that we could include.
> 
> Contacted the Council to ask about using that info, & they have given explicit permission for us to use this info for Alpha & 4 other towns in their area.
> 
> That's great, but it appears that they don't publish anything under a CC BY licence at all - the only reference I can see just says "© Barcaldine Regional Council"? 
> 
> So, can we use it, or do we have to still have a waiver of some sort?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Graeme
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