Week 11: REFLECT -- Open data is the future of the web

Image: http://www.copyrighttribunal.gov.au/images/copyright_graphic.png

Data should be open. In every case, from the NSA keeping classified tabs on the public to people illegally downloading because they don’t want to pay for backward pricing schemes and content restrictions, the problem has been from the data itself not being transparent with the public. Libraries should aim to be as open as possible, as they are a service fundamentally there to serve the user, not the organisation. A government typically funds a library, so there is no need for profit margins that would typically require internal procedure with numbers and statistics. Everything should be released, being a government organisation, into the public domain.

Books, e-books, DVDs, history information and their own data on how their services are being used should be made available to the public. Libraries should be curators of information, not gatekeepers of information. A library’s job is to help someone find the information they are after and helpfulness can only be guaranteed if there is full disclosure of information.

On a wider note as to the copyrights involved with these materials, the best information I’ve seen originates from The Pirate Party’s plan for copyright reform. Our copyright law is outdated, and the reason people are illegally downloading off of torrent sites instead of buying first hand or using the library is because libraries mightn’t be allowed or have access to the material. The Pirate Party looks to change the legislation, chiefly by:

 - giving the rights to the creators of the material and retaining their moral rights

 - reducing copyright to being held for only 15 years instead of the current ridiculous amount of time after an artist has passed on

 - Something akin to US law's “fair use” will be enforced to allow for appropriate commercial or non-commercial use of products (ie. Youtube uploads will not be taken down if they conform to this use)

-          Exceptions will be made for remixes, parodies, or other artistic implementation of samples from copyrighted work

-          Allowing libraries and digital archives to digitise the material (really important for libraries!)

- DRM enforcement will be repealed, and instead the fundamental confusion to users will be cleared up by changing a DRM-laden product to being a “licence” for a product as opposed to “sold”

There are other changes too, but they are the main changes pertaining to libraries. Sadly, with the recent election, the Pirate Party did not win a seat, perhaps due to their ties to the Pirate Bay in how they market themselves. However, this kind of reform is what data needs to be open and fundamentally of a positive service to the user and the artist, and what libraries would need to expand their collections and how much they can offer a user. As well, these kinds of sweeping changes to copyrights could fix the deadlock between users illegally downloading and the publishers with an archaic approach to the rights of both consumer and artist in the internet age.

Image: http://pirateparty.org.au/constitution/ppauLogo-australia.png