Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] Fwd: [OpenSpending] Fwd: [sunlightlabs] MapLight Launches New US Money and Politics Data Set

[Jonathan Gray]

My mistake, Heather!

I was under this impression from the press release, which says: "The MapLight Money and Politics Data Set can also be downloaded or accessed via API by citizens and journalists for free *non-commercial* use in websites, widgets, and apps." (my emphasis).

I will forward the data license to the Open Definition Advisory Council [1], to see if they think this is compliant with the Open Definition [2]:

http://maplight.org/data/get/federal-money-and-politics-dataset/license

J.

[1] http://opendefinition.org/advisory-council/

[2] http://opendefinition.org/

On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 9:13 PM, Heather Morrison <hgmo...@sfu.ca> wrote:

Cool resource - thanks for sharing this, Michael!

The Open Knowledge Foundation's Jonathan Gray's comment misportrays the license for this resource.

Here is what it actually says: "free of charge for all uses that are freely available to the public. For example, you may use the MapLight Data on free public websites (including ad-supported websites); in news reporting available to the public; in academic research; in blog posts; and in mobile apps offered free of charge".
http://maplight.org/data/get/federal-money-and-politics-dataset/license

This is not a CC license, but it more closely resembles Sharealike than Noncommercial.

best,

Heather Morrison

On 2012-10-02, at 11:57 AM, Michael Lenczner wrote:

> fyi
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Jonathan Gray <jonath...@okfn.org>
> Date: Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 2:50 PM
> Subject: [OpenSpending] Fwd: [sunlightlabs] MapLight Launches New US
> Money and Politics Data Set
> To: open-go...@lists.okfn.org, opensp...@lists.okfn.org
>
>
> Might be of interest. Shame it is all under a non-commercial license!
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Daniel Newman <d...@maplight.org>
> Date: Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 8:23 PM
> Subject: [sunlightlabs] MapLight Launches New US Money and Politics Data Set
> To: sunlightlabs <sunlig...@googlegroups.com>
>
>
> Free, Public MapLight Money and Politics Data Set Launches Today,
> Includes All Federal Campaign Contributions
>
> Hosted on Google Fusion Tables for Easy Searching and Bulk Download
> Accessible by API
>
> Oct. 2, 2012—MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization that
> reveals money's influence on politics, announces the launch of the
> MapLight Money and Politics Data Set, an easy-to-access, downloadable
> database of MapLight-enhanced Federal Elections Commission (FEC)
> campaign finance data for free public use. The data set includes all
> federal contributions, independent expenditures (including super
> PACs), and candidate and committee totals and will update regularly
> with the most current data from the FEC.
>
> "MapLight is excited to offer this critical civic data in a way that
> is more timely and accessible than ever before, said Daniel G. Newman,
> MapLights co-founder and president. "It will be wonderful to see what
> the web community builds with this continually-updated free public
> data, using the latest tools from Google Fusion Tables."
>
> Citizens, journalists, and programmers can now view, search, sort,
> filter, and visualize (with charts, line graphs, bar graphs, scatter
> plots, and timelines) federal campaign contributions using Google
> Fusion Tables. Data can also be merged with outside databases, and
> visualizations can be easily embedded into blogs, media sites, and
> more.
>
> The MapLight Money and Politics Data Set can also be downloaded or
> accessed via API by citizens and journalists for free non-commercial
> use in websites, widgets, and apps. The data set includes continually
> updated information on all current candidates for the House, Senate,
> and U.S. Presidentincluding how much each has raised and spentmaking
> it easy for election-related websites to integrate this newsworthy
> information.
>
> Read more: http://maplight.org/maplight-launches-fec-money-and-politics-data-set
>
> -----
> Daniel Newman
> President & Co-Founder
> MapLight
>
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>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Head of Community
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://www.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>
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--
Jonathan Gray

Head of Community
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg

[Thomas Lord]

For what it might be worth I'd also like to weigh
in to express some hope that MapLight might
reconsider and drop its restrictions on some
forms of commercial use of some of the data they
offer.

Another licensing term I think is horribly, horribly
problematic says:

"User will, upon MapLight's request, provide
MapLight with monthly traffic statistics (visitors
and pageviews) for web pages that use MapLight
Data. MapLight does not distribute user-specific
traffic statistics except in cases where we have
obtained the user's permission. MapLight reserves
the right to publish usage statistics aggregated
across multiple users. News media exemption: The
requirements in this section 5 do not apply if you
are using the MapLight Data only as part of news
reporting, research reports, or commentary published
on your site."

And then there's this one:

"These terms may be modified at any time.
MapLight will send notification of changes
to the MapLight Data Users email list."

With those terms I personally can't see any good way
to build anything at all on MapLight data. There
are too many restrictions and too much uncertainty.
This effectively silos the data in a way that I
think runs contrary to the spirit of the
open government movement.

-t

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