The UK government has announced plans to adopt Creative Commons licences for the use of government open data.
UK Adopts Creative Commons Licence for Open Data
February 9, 2010
Share this post
2 Comments

Law Bytes
Episode 260: What the Government Didn’t Want You To Hear About Bill C-4 And Its Weak Political Party Privacy Rules
byMichael Geist

March 2, 2026
Michael Geist
February 23, 2026
Michael Geist
February 9, 2026
Michael Geist
Episode 256: Jennifer Quaid on Taking On Big Tech With the Competition Act's Private Right of Access
February 2, 2026
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
Words Are Not Enough: Countering Relentless Antisemitic Violence in Canada With Action
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 260: What the Government Didn’t Want You To Hear About Bill C-4 And Its Weak Political Party Privacy Rules
Why the Online Harms Act is the Wrong Way to Regulate AI Chatbots
More Transparency Not Police Reporting: Navigating the Safety-Privacy Balance for AI ChatBots
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 259: The Privacy and Surveillance Risks of AI Chatbot Reporting to Police

government data
Thanks for posting this. I was reminded of hearing a couple of months ago that the city of Vancouver in Canada had made all of their municipal data open to the public (http://data.vancouver.ca/index.htm). (Eg to create an application that alerts residents by email the night before garbage pickup, depending on your neighborhood.) The terms of use state that Vancouver “grants you a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to use, modify, and distribute the datasets in all current and future media and formats for any lawful purpose.” It makes sense for government data to be available to the populations that the government represents, and for people to be able to use that data. A reasonable license makes it easier for us all to use that data responsibly.
Seconded!
This is something all levels of government, from municipal to provincial to federal, ought to be adopting in due course. It might even kickstart the economy so more of us can earn an honest living!