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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.

4 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Bit torrent by DiSKiLLeR · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sounds like an excellent use for Bit Torrent? I assume someone will download the whole dataset and make a torrent out of it before long....

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    You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
    1. Re:Bit torrent by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Careful there, we still remember what happened to the last guy who tried to make public data public...

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. Re:Government is here to help by drsmithy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And we all know all forms of central planning always fail at everything. That's why centrally planned, hierarchical organisations like religions, corporations and military forces have never been successful at anything.

  3. Re:Link to torrent by SgtChaireBourne · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There may be a usual reason to ensure disclaimers, etc are read, but javascript is definitely not the way to go. You can very easily require a specific http referrer URL by configuring Apache to require it for a file or directory. Or you can simply have a plain old README or LICENSE file included in the tarball. Javascript just hurts usability and makes things over complicated and broken.

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