Neil Harris wrote:
The BBC is carrying an interesting story on possible changes in the attitude of the UK government to the free use of government information. At the moment, the Statute Law Database is Crown Copyright, as is nearly all UK government information, with a commercial licence needed for any use other than private study or non-commercial research.
According to the BBC, this may be about to change, and the changes may be part of a wider change in attitude to the free reuse of government data.
Is this something that the Foundation or other interested Wikipedians might be interested in pursuing with the UK government?
This sounds like a welcome development. I think that this is one area where US law has got it right. Having the UK do this could start the ball rolling in other countries..
I think that the suggestion that they might still require permissions, even free ones, unworkable. I think requiring a simple disclaimer that the mirrored version of a law is not an official one should be enough to ensure that people aren't deceived. From what I have seen of US material this does not seem to be a significant problem there.
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