Joshua Gans has written a humorous but relevant opinion piece on the restrictions on republishing information published on government web sites.

His point is that there is much government data (he gives the examples of the location of public toilets and bus and train timetables and potentially FuelWatch data) which is either inaccessible when you want it or is published in a form that is not easy to use which third parties could re-use for the public benefit (plus a marginal profit).

It reminds me of the government practice of requiring copyright over all third party contractors’ work even though the government did not keep a record of what they owned or how it could be used.

Whilst there are no doubt copyright and contractual issues, the issue also reflects cultural and philosophical beliefs about the ownership of (intellectual) property.

It is worth quoting US copyright lawyer William Patry who this week stopped writing his blog citing the depressing state of copyright law:

Copyright law has abandoned its reason for being: to encourage learning and the creation of new works. Instead, its principal functions now are to preserve existing failed business models, to suppress new business models and technologies, and to obtain, if possible, enormous windfall profits from activity that not only causes no harm, but which is beneficial to copyright owners.

UPDATE: If you’re interested in exploring the concept of creativity and the law then you have to read Blawg Review#171. Here’s how it starts:

"If intellectual property had a theme song it would have to be "Like a Virgin." 

Why?

Because IP is all about "the very first time," the "aha" moment, the creative spark that gives rise to previously undreamed imaginings.The restrictions of "how we’ve always done things" fall away and the numbing repetition of days become vibrant. " Read more