Forum:Will 'our' climate change data be free to reuse?

Not many people may have noticed the recent (Monday, November 27 2006) publication of (UK) statistics on local and regional carbon dioxide emissions for 2004,

Earlier this year the Guardian started up a campaign to Free Our Data and there are concerns about restrictions on the reuse of data presently covered by Crown Copyright. There is also a European campiagn: public geodata.

If the government is serious about climate change being the greatest threat to humanity, does it make sense to restrict in any way use of 'our' data which can help inform debate?

As the government has invested substantial sums of public money to enable and encourage others, including community groups, to influence the wider public about climate change, isn't it shooting itself in the foot if it places unnecessary and bureaucratic limitation on the fair and reasonable use of data to support this important work?

This original version of this comment was first published on the Sustainable Community Action wiki, and subsequently copied to the Free Our Data blog. Philralph 13:35, 3 December 2006 (UTC)