Next steps on licensing GTFS files

[matikin9]

• Refine MOU language: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HfYMRBnmqmc4VJ3MxEGtX2bToVT0zlqDfIAonzVT4h4/edit
• Go through Customer Care for contacts with munis.

Michael Owens' email

Nina,

Just turning to this, and here is a first cut of my thoughts on your questions:

• I wrote a very basic disclaimer message for the page the GTFS files are hosted on. Do we need something more robust? “While we will do our best to ensure the data is kept accurate and up to date, we cannot be held liable for any omissions and inaccuracies.”
This is a good start, but if you are planning to use the CC-BY 4.0 license, I’d suggest also including some of its disclaimer language and linking it back to that. Maybe something like this:

“While we will do our best to ensure the data is kept accurate and up to date, we cannot be held liable for any omissions and inaccuracies. As more fully described in the accompanying license (link it), the data is provided as-is and as-available, and Metro makes no representations and disclaims all warranties express or implied related to the data.”

• We were given a recommendation from Cal-ITP to apply the CC-BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) to the GTFS data (both Metro’s and the local munis’). Are there any issues with this?
If it meets Metro’s intent, it’s not so much that there are issues so much as practical items that need worked out to get it right.

One thing that would need worked out is who the licensor or licensors would be. Would each local muni license out its own GTFS data under that license? Would they all license it to Metro for Metro to then license out? One of the obligations licensees pick up under the CC-BY 4.0 license is attribution. So including notice of who has rights to what would be important to ensure compliance with the license. (Failure to comply with the terms of the license terminates it).

Metro would be unable to revoke this license once given. (But the license can terminate if the licensee fails to comply with its terms).

The licensed data would be provided as-is and disclaims all standard warranties, which is good for Metro on the liability side.

This type of license doesn’t apply to hardware or software and doesn’t license patent rights, moral rights, or anything not held by copyright or similar rights. It is a license that works with databases.

There are actually 6 types of 4.0 creative commons license types that restrict different rights, like prohibiting sharing adaptations, prohibiting commercial issues, or requiring that adaptations be licensed under the same license (ShareAlike – SA). Presumably Metro does not want to use the NoDerivatives (ND) or NonCommercial (NC) variants, but it would need to consider exactly what types of uses it wanted to permit or restrict for the data in determining which 4.0 license best fit its needs. The linked version is the BY license and requires only attribution. If you wanted adaptations to be relicensed under the same terms then the SA version would be appropriate, but it might slow commercial adoptions though.

• We have a Terms & Conditions page on our Developer website (https://developer.metro.net/terms-conditions/). It was outdated when I inherited it so I took a pass at updating it. Is this something you could take a look at and give us some recommendations for?

Does Metro use cookies, targeting pixels, or third party analytical tools related to this site that may gather any users information?

If there is any sort of collection of the user’s information then it also raises additional disclosure and other questions on handling. In the past when I reviewed terms for a Metro site, Metro’s Privacy Officer was working with an outside consultant on recommendations for Metro’s handling of various privacy laws. Those laws typically do not apply to Metro, as those laws have exceptions for governmental entities, but are sometimes considered best practices. Or may come to be rights expected by California consumers. I don’t know where they landed on any of those issues, so it may be helpful to reach out to Metro’s Privacy Officer and the consultant to see if there are have been other further updates in that regard that should be considered.

Following up after:

• Get County Counsel feedback about disclaimer language and licensing #7