Transparent and Commercialized?: Managing the Public-Private Model for Data Production and Use

Abstract

This Article examines the relationship between two trends: the move towards transparency in government data and information and the increasing commercialization of data through social network and other sites. The author presents a normative framework for reconciling these two trends, analyzes the legal implications of this normative framework, and examines three case studies: the private use of government real estate assessment records, the creation of websites like data.gov, and governmental protection of databases. The Article concludes with a proposal for an open source licensing model for data and information.

Keywords: Intellectual Property, Data, Legal Regulation of Information