Legal framework of textual data processing for Machine Translation and Language Technology research and development activities/Public Sector Information (PSI) Case Studies
Case #1: Uploading-copying Public data (normally under PSI directive) to a repository
editCase description | |
Actor | Repository manager |
Intended use | Upload the JRC-Aquis dataset to my repository |
Conditions | The dataset is accompanied by this "Usage Conditions/Licensing Issues" text at http://ipsc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?id=198#c2726 |
Question | Do I upload the dataset and also provide a link to the original site
or Just describe it with metadata, add attribution info, and link to the original site for downloading? |
Suggested legal solution | |
Legal position | The licensing information is slightly confusing, since it accepts the AC corpus as being in the public domain, but then moves to impose conditions to its access (attribution and non-endorsement). This may be construed as having individual legislative documents as under the PD and the complete database (corpus) under copyright (or the sui-generis right) and having thus the licence applied only to the copyrighted parts of the corpus. It is also debatable whether the corpus would fall under Decision 2011/833/EU. In any case, the licensing terms would satisfy the conditions of the re-use decision. Note that the Eurovoc Thesaurus does not fall under the Re-use decision and a special permission is required regarding its re-use. |
Suggested course of action | Keep the attribution notice and metadata together with the non-endorsement note. You may upload and share the material through your repository as long as you adhere to these conditions. |
Type of Terms and Conditions | Attribution, non-endorsement, copyright notices |
Legal basis | Copyright Law, 2011/833/EU |
Case #2: Uploading-copying Public data (normally under PSI directive) to a repository
editCase description | |
Actor | Repository manager |
Intended use | Upload the JRC-Aquis dataset to my repository |
Conditions | The dataset is accompanied by this "Usage Conditions/Licensing Issues" text at http://ipsc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?id=198#c2726 |
Question | Do I upload the dataset and also provide a link to the original site
or Just describe it with metadata, add attribution info, and link to the original site for downloading? |
Suggested legal solution | |
Legal position | The licensing information is slightly confusing, since it accepts the AC corpus as being in the public domain, but then moves to impose conditions to its access (attribution and non-endorsement). This may be construed as having individual legislative documents as under the PD and the complete database (corpus) under copyright (or the sui-generis right) and having thus the licence applied only to the copyrighted parts of the corpus. It is also debatable whether the corpus would fall under Decision 2011/833/EU. In any case, the licensing terms would satisfy the conditions of the re-use decision. Note that the Eurovoc Thesaurus does not fall under the Re-use decision and a special permission is required regarding its re-use. |
Suggested course of action | Keep the attribution notice and metadata together with the non-endorsement note. You may upload and share the material through your repository as long as you adhere to these conditions. |
Type of Terms and Conditions | Attribution, non-endorsement, copyright notices |
Legal basis | Copyright Law, 2011/833/EU |
Case #3: Uploading-copying "Open" data to a repository
editCase description | |
Actor | Repository manager |
Intended use | Upload the Opensubtitles dataset to my repository |
Conditions | I want to copy it from the http://opus.lingfil.uu.se/OpenSubtitles.php site which says "IMPORTANT: If you use the OpenSubtitle corpus, please, add a link to http://www.opensubtitles.org/ to your website and to your reports and publications produced with the data! I got the data under this condition!" |
Question | Can I upload the dataset and link to the original site? If yes, which is the original site in this case: http://opus.lingfil.uu.se/OpenSubtitles.php OR http://www.opensubtitles.org/en?
Or Just describe it with metadata, add attribution info, and link to the original site for downloading? |
Suggested legal solution | |
Legal position | This is a case where we have a copyrighted work (subtitles and subtitles database) that is protected under copyright and is licensed under a custom made open licence. Custom made open licences are licences with minimal conditions (i.e. attribution and copyleft) that were made for a specific work or set of works but could potentially interoperate with other open licences. The specific licence only requires reference to the original site, i.e. http://www.opensubtitles.org/, to allow all uses of the work. No further attribution or use of notices is required, since the attribution through the URL is meant to cover them all. |
Suggested course of action | Upload and share after including URL (i.e. http://www.opensubtitles.org/) as instructed in the licences |
Type of Terms and Conditions | Attribution |
Legal basis | Copyright Law |