Synopsis
For various social, political, and economic reasons, open data has become a popular government practice and international movement in recent years. It is estimated that more than 250 national or local governments from around 50 developed and developing countries have launched open government data (OGD) initiatives. Open data policies are widely recognized as a tool to foster government transparency and economic growth. Businesses have also developed innovative applications, products, and services based on OGD. Although OGD is a global movement, it faces a number of unsolved legal hurdles. Among others, it is critically important for participating governments to devise the most appropriate legal means of releasing data, and intellectual property (IP) licensing has been viewed as one of the main obstacles for governments in this regard.
This presentation will focus on the legal issues associated with OGD licenses. Different government agencies have chosen different licensing terms to manage the release of their data. Dr. Lee will compare current open data licenses and explains that licensing terms reflect policy considerations. He will present the ambiguous legal status of data together with the new wave of OGD, which concerns some fundamental IP questions not covered by, or analyzed in depth in, the current literature. In the end, he will illustrate that the design or choice of OGD license forms an important element of information policy; governments, therefore, should make this decision in accordance with their policy goals and in compliance with their own jurisdictions’ IP laws.
Speaker
Jyh-An LEE is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he currently serves as the Deputy Director of the LL.B. Programme and Director of the Centre for Financial Regulation and Economic Development (CFRED). He holds a J.S.D. from Stanford Law School and an LL.M from Harvard Law School. Dr. Lee has extensively published in English and in Chinese on various aspects of intellectual property and Internet law. His publications appear in leading academic journals. He is also the single author of two books: Coding a Free Society: Open Source Strategies for Policymakers (VDM Verlag Müller Press, 2007) and Nonprofit Organizations and the Intellectual Commons (Edward Elgar, 2012). During his studies at Stanford Law School, Dr. Lee was appointed as the John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics. Prior to joining the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he taught at National Chengchi University and was an Associate Research Fellow in Center for Information Technology Innovation at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He was the Legal Lead and Co-Lead of Creative Commons Taiwan (2011-2014) and an advisory committee member for Copyright Amendment in the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) at the Ministry of Economic Affairs (2011-2014). Professor Lee is currently a member of the advisory board of the European Center for E-Commerce & Internet Law affiliated with University of Vienna. He has served as a domain name dispute resolution panellist appointed by the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre (ADNDRC) since 2016.
Programme
2.30pm - Registration
3.00pm – Lecture
4.30pm – Discussion and Q & A
5.00pm - End of Event
Public CPD Points - 1.5 points
This programme is an Accredited CPD Activity under the SILE’s CPD Scheme. Participants who wish to claim CPD Points are reminded that they must comply strictly with the Attendance Policy set out in the CPD Guidelines. This includes signing-in on arrival and signing-out at the conclusion of the activity in the manner required by the organiser, and not being absent from the entire activity for more than 15 minutes. Participants who do not comply with the Attendance Policy will not be able to obtain CPD Points for attending the activity. Please refer to http://www.silecpdcentre.sg for more information.
Click here for the newsletter and registration link.
Last updated on 16 May 2018 .
