Accessing and Licensing Government Data under Open Access Conditons

This study examines how to best ensure the re-use of governmental data in Europe, with special focus on the legal solutions available for managing IP rights that may subsist in public sector databases. The implementation of Directive 96/9/EC introduced a new, sui generis database right aimed at protecting the investments made by the producer of a non-original database in the collection, verification or presentation of the contents of a database. The Database Directive seems not to exclude public sector databases from the sui generis protection. The research therefore analyses the interface between the Database Directive and the Directive on the reuse of public sector information (PSI), as well as the possible solutions for maximizing the re-use of both protected and unprotected public datasets. Among the solutions is the use of open content licences. The study investigates when re-use initiatives can take place with ‘no rights reserved’ conditions (and when, consequently, public bodies should be encouraged to adopt these schemes), and which open content licensing system is best suited to guarantee unrestricted re-use of public sector databases. The study concludes that the development of a strong and effective international standardized open data licensing system should be given priority to provide users of public sector databases with the necessary legal certainty and to stop the proliferation of national (potentially incompatible) initiatives.