EU Committee Endorses Opening Up of Publicly-Funded Data

UPDATE: Here is an Official Statement from the EC (Includes Links to Additional Information)

When fully implemented, proposed new rules would:

• Create a genuine right to re-use public information, not present in the original 2003 Directive;
• [Our emphasis] Expand the reach of the Directive to include libraries, museums and archives;
• Establish that public sector bodies can charge at maximum the marginal cost for reproduction, provision and dissemination of the information. In exceptional cases, full cost recovery (plus a reasonable return on investment) will remain possible;
• Oblige public sector bodies to be more transparent about charging rules;
• Encourage the availability of data in open machine-readable formats

From an Article on Gigaom.com:

Member states of the European Union have endorsed new rules for opening up publicly-funded data to developers, businesses and citizens.
The 27 countries agreed on the rule change on Wednesday, according to the European Commission, which is behind the proposed revision of a 2003 directive on public sector information. If the European Parliament adds its stamp of approval, national governments will then transpose the changes into their laws sometime in the next 18 months or so.

Read the Complete Article

The European Commission is also hoping to extend the reach of the Directive to include libraries, museums and archives, so information from these institutions can be accessed for the first time.

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Data Files, Libraries, News