According to the EU Directive 2003/98 public sector bodies can currently charge the cost of collection, production, reproduction and dissemination, together with a reasonable return on investment. If the upper limit for charging was lowered to the marginal costs of reproduction and dissemination...

The Creative Commons model seems an attractice instrument for public sector bodies that seek to enhance transparent access to their information, be it for purposes of democratic accountability or re-use for economic or other uses. This study examined that hypothesis and highlights the major...

The reliance on national access norms is an important feature of the EU’s re-use framework. It impacts the kinds of policy choices that can be expected to be effective in stimulating commercial and non-commercial re-use of public sector information by private actors (businesses, civil society...

The regulation of copyright in materials produced for or by public sector bodies is historically linked to ideas about representative democracy, the legitimacy and binding effect of laws, and transparency in judicial proceedings. These notions can produce a variety of regulatory outcomes, as the...

As the rapid growth of the Open Government Partnership shows, it is by now conventional wisdom that opening up government information for broader use by industry, civil society and citizens produces many benefits: better performing government, more citizen participation and impressive economic...