Broadly speaking, any data collected with the use of public funds cannot be
restricted for use from any member of the public.
Having said that, even copyrighted information may be free to use, after all
that is precisely what copyleft is. However, the use of copyleft is not
commonly applied to textual information other than manuals attached to or
related to copylefted software.
Given the lack of public discourse in the area of copyleft in India, I have
my doubts that the census data is copylefted. However, more information is
needed. Mere mention of copyright is insufficient to prevent its lawful use
and reuse for the public weal, without specifying the restrictions implicit
or explicit in the specific license.
If any government body objects to the use of census data for any purpose
relating to the public weal, I believe that there will be a strong case for
legal strictures against the Census of India.
On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 9:11 PM, CherianTinu Abraham
<tinucherian(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
Census website says :
"Material on this site subject to copyright unless otherwise indicated."
I am particularly curious on how we would be able to use data from census
website. I used 2001 census data as input data for my Indian villages pilot
project on en.wiki. I was waiting for 2011 census data for further work
which would be more updated and correct information. But the site says it is
still copyrighted.
Any legal experts?
-TC
On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 8:51 PM, Naveen Francis <naveenpf(a)gmail.com> wrote:
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