Inventory
Re-use of Public Sector Information
Country Examples
In this section :
Office of Public Sector Information | Légifrance
Name of case
Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI)
Short Description
The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) is at the heart of information policy, setting standards, providing a practical framework of best practice for opening up and encouraging the re-use of public sector information. It provides a wide range of services to the public, the information industry, government and the wider public sector relating to finding, using, sharing and trading information.
Web address
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/about/index.htm
Type
G-G, G-B, G-C
Communication
One way plus possibility of click-use licenses
Sector
Official materials: legislation and government information
Confidential data
No
Level of Government
National
Types of partnerships
OPSI proposes licenses to allow private-sector re-use of the published information. This is no partnership in the real sense of the term but a kind of co-operation between public and private sectors.
Area
Re-use of public sector information
Legal framework
UK Regulations on the re-use of PSI (came into force on 1 July 2005); Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information has set out rules on the re-use of public sector information.
Description of specific barriers
Re-use of public sector information is hindered by a lack of transparency about the re-use possibilities and pricing policy, by exclusive rights and by the formats of documents. The directive 2003/98 proposes rules to overcome these obstacles.
Has the barrier been overcome? If so how; and how successful has such moves been? If not how might the barrier be overcome?
OPSI is a good example of the re-organisation of services to meet directive 2003/98 requirements. OPSI (previously HMSO - Her Majesty Stationary Office) has:
- “improved dissemination of PSI and services to citizens and business;
- provides quick and easy access to data;
- established good public/private sector co-operation;
- created more effective, relevant and permanent links and thus enhanced interoperability by improving the distribution of information across a variety of media, systems and different government departments;
- launched the online Click-Use Licenses which allow unrestricted use of government information. These standard licenses facilitate PSI exploitation by removing conflicts and simplifying negotiation between public bodies and private operators;
- publishes license terms and conditions, transparent pricing structure for the re-use and reply time;
- prohibits exclusive arrangements which hamper fair competition;
- has made digital format the primary form of dissemination;
- allows access to any pre-existing format;
- developed and adopted common standards and metadata;
- publishes electronic catalogues of accessible data resources and has created the Inforoute portal which is linked to decentralised assets lists;
- publishes how to complain or appeal if re-users feel that they have not been treated fairly”.
From Practices of Exploitation of PSI”, Deliverable related to WP2 Task 4 in the framework of the EPSINet Project, 25 August 2004, p. 14
Whereas Directive 2003/98 was supposed to harmonize Member States practices concerning the re-use of public sector information, the rules set up in the directive are insufficient and unsuccessful to achieve complete harmonization. The confrontation of the OPSI example, Légifrance (below) and others in the same field illustrates that. Such a situation creates difficulties for the development of cross-border or pan European information products or services.
Countries involved
UK
Name of case
Légifrance
Short Description
The French public service of law diffusion via the internet (SPDDI) has to make essential legal norms and case-law freely available for internet users.
Web address
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/
Type
G-C, G-B, G-G
Communication
One way communication
Sector
Legal information
Confidential data
No
Level of Government
National
Types of integration
Horizontal
Area
Re-use of public sector information
Legal framework
French decree n°2002-1064 of 7 August 2002 concerning the public service of law diffusion via the internet; French Code of intellectual property; Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information
Description of specific barriers
Directive 2003/98 has set out rules concerning the re-use of public sector information. Those rules are met in the Légifrance example (notably the transparency requirements) as in the OPSI example. Obstacles to re-use addressed by the Directive 2003/98 are thus overcome.
However, the rules to allow the re-use of published information by anyone are not the same as those set out by OPSI. In the Légifrance example, they state that “all databases of this website are protected under provisions of title IV of book III (art L. 341-1 of the Code of intellectual property): every extraction or re-use of 'quantitatively or qualitatively substantial parts of the content' of one of the databases supposes the previous conclusion of a license”. The website explains what is perceived as a ‘quantitatively substantial part’ or a ‘qualitatively substantial part’ of the databases content. Therefore, if you do not intend to re-use such substantial parts, you may freely re-use nearly everything contained in the French databases because most of this legal data is not covered by copyright protection. OPSI policy is different: most of the UK legal material is covered by Crown copyright, users need to check in the lists published on the OPSI website whether they need to contract a license in case of re-use intention or whether the users need falls into a listed exemption. Such divergences as these between Légifrance and OPSI create difficulties for the development of cross-border or Pan European information products or services.
Countries involved
France