Having copy left licenses on data removes them from use by the commercial market (it's much too complicated from a legal standpoint). We need to think about how web services are changing software licenses as more appropriate models. If our job is to further science, we should set the data free. - Deepak Singh

its that or break the system entirely and find a completely new legal framework as far as I can see. Not that those are mutually exclusive of course. - Cameron Neylon

I am in favor of a completely new system. There have to be multiple access levels, but fundamentally raw data has to be set free. Copy left here adds barriers to usage which hurts science - Deepak Singh

but without a new international framework being enacted (not holding my breath) that requires a contract being formed between users presumably. And I don't see how that can be managed while also keeping things free and easy. - Cameron Neylon

Unfortunately very true, but similar things have happened before - Deepak Singh

I don't agree that copyleft hurts science. If Business can get over their phony opposition against copyleft, I don't see any reason how business cannot use the data. I would put the blame on the greed, inertia and unwarranted biases of business community than copyleft. If your argument is to hold true, there should be no businesses based on copyleft licenses in the software field. Rather, there are progressive companies that has built successful business models over copyleft. - Krishnan Subramanian

I will never agree over any argument that others should bend their way of life to make business community thrive. Why I am not seeing a movement inside business community where they say "hey we are being too greedy, we should bend ourselves a bit to play the game". Why do I always see people who ask Free software or Science to bend their way to placate business community. - Krishnan Subramanian

BTW, I apologize for going a bit offtopic from this thread but my arguments are relevant to some extent. - Krishnan Subramanian

Software and data are fundamentally different, so you can't make the analogy easily. Data belongs in the commons. By attaching copyleft, you are saying the data has more intrinsic value than it has. No one has the right to copyleft genomic data, protein structure data, etc etc. What's on top of them is a different issue. - Deepak Singh

That's the core of John Wilbanks' point. Krishnan, John's responses (http://tinyurl.com/3eb9w3 and http://tinyurl.com/4t2ufo) are a must read. It made a lot of things click into for me. - Cameron Neylon

Cameron, I read it from Deepak's link. It was a good one. I was looking at it from a totally different angle and as Deepak said, it borders around being dogmatic. - Krishnan Subramanian

Yeh, sorry, re-reading your comment I see where you are coming from but I still think Deepak's point is the key one. - Cameron Neylon