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Australian Bureau of Statistics Doesn't Like Direct Downloads of Census Data

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sort-of-open-data dept.

Bismillah writes "The ABS has released the census data for the country under a Creative Commons license, but instead of making it easy to get, they've put in Javascript to obfuscate file paths and more. All commented in the source code of course." At first glance, it's an attempt to get people to pay $250 for a DVD with the data instead.

7 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Link to torrent by sdreader · · Score: 5, Informative

    Link to the torrent of the census data from the article:
    http://blog.angrygoats.net/2013/04/12/2011-australian-census-release-3/

    Since the data is available for free (obfuscated or not) and was released under a CC license, technically this should all be considered legal, right? Not that it should be necessary of course.

    --
    Apparently being anti-Steam is grounds for insults, even if there's basis. I shall learn to keep my mouth shut.
    1. Re:Link to torrent by GerryHattrick · · Score: 3, Informative

      Usual reason for doing this with official data is to avoid sensation-seekers 'hotlinking' to specific data without noting the disclaimers, statistical cautions, changes of basis etc. which moderate any interpretation.

  2. Re:Bit torrent by Bifurcati · · Score: 5, Informative

    Indeed they have!

    --

    Physicist, consultant, science communicator
  3. Re:Bit torrent by SuperBanana · · Score: 3, Informative

    FtFA:

    http://blog.angrygoats.net/2013/04/12/2011-australian-census-release-3/

    --
    Please help metamoderate.
  4. If you're wondering why the data are licensed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Remember that in many countries works of the national government are not automatically in the public domain like they are in the US. In Commonwealth realms this is called Crown Copyright.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_copyright/

  5. Re:s/months/decades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, he was facing over 50 years in prison.

  6. Re:Bit torrent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    He annoyed those in power when he made the PACER documents available for free.