Re: r-cran-maptools_0.7.16-1_i386.changes REJECTED (fwd)

[Stuart Prescott <stuart+debian@nanonanonano.net>]

Hi Julia,

> A quick note that the public-use permission for the sample data files
> on our site (http://geodacenter.asu.edu/sdata) haven't changed and we
> don't intend to change them in the future.

Thanks for your clarification -- perhaps you could answer a couple more 
questions about these data sets for me (as an interested observer to this 
discussion):

It is obviously intended that I could download these datasets to work through 
the tutorials given on your site. Am I allowed to download the datasets and 
place them on a local server for my class to use them (with appropriate 
attribution) without each student having to download them directly from your 
site?

Is it intended that other people are allowed to host these data sets on other 
websites (e.g. my personal website) and (with appropriate credit) allow 
others to download them from there rather than directly from the ASU website?

If this *is* the case, then could you please state that somewhere on the page? 
Saying that the data is "available for use" is not the same as stating that I 
am allowed to also give away the data. (And if this is *not* the case, then 
the cran maptools people will need to remove the data sets from their 
downloads.) Copyright law generally needs an explicit permission to 
redistribute to be offered by the copyright holder, and "available for use" 
is not such a permission.


Returning to my hypothetical class who are going to work through your 
tutorials, if I would like to work with simplified data (for didactic 
reasons), am I able to modify the data sets and offer the modified data sets 
to the class (with appropriate attribution)?

If I were a researcher in the field, am I allowed to take these data sets and 
add to them or improve them through further work? (giving appropriate credit, 
of course!) May I then offer the derived data on my website for others to 
download? 

If this is the case, could you please explicitly state this on the website? 
Once again, "available for use" is not helpful in terms of copyright law, 
where distribution of a derivative work must be permitted by the owner of the 
original work.


I don't think people are necessarily asking for a change to the public-use 
permission that you give -- it's wonderful to have such data available! But 
clearly stating the intentions of the licence would be most welcome. The more 
I think about the phrase "available for use", the less I understand exactly 
what it means.

regards
Stuart

(who is obviously no longer just an interested _observer_ to this discussion)

-- 
Stuart Prescott                 www.nanoNANOnano.net