On the legal reusability of public data in Europe

This presentation was part of an online seminar titled "The ability to use and re-use published data for which the copyright or license is missing or unclear". The event was hosted by the Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment Aalborg University, Denmark on 1March 2022. The seminar itself was not recorded based on the wishes of participants. The abstract for this presentation starts (truncated by about half): Energy system analysts working in Europe and elsewhere have begun the long journey toward establishing a knowledge commons for the energy sector. The advantages of having a single, virtual, maintained, shared, and coherent bedrock of data for integrated system analysis are self‑evident. The entire undertaking is nonetheless predicated on being able to source legally unencumbered public data from official sources. This presentation examines the legal status of public data in Europe under current conditions. Key legislation like the database directive 96/9/EC, the open data directive 2019/1024, and prevailing copyright law are examined in the context of this emerging knowledge commons. And the picture that emerges is far from encouraging. Despite its name, the open data directive does not support genuinely re‑usable data, the database directive remains an impediment, the legal status of material under statutory reporting is in general compromised, and it can be difficult to discern the conditions under which pivotal public sector entities should release their information. The solution advocated here is to press for public information providers to deploy Creative Commons CC‑BY‑4.0 licenses on primary data and CC0‑1.0 public domain dedications on the associated metadata and cataloging information.