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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.

19 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....

    --
    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 Bifurcati · · Score: 5, Informative

      Indeed they have!

      --

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

      FtFA:

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

      --
      Please help metamoderate.
    3. 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...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Bit torrent by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ha, I won't visit sites with goat in the name. Fool me once...

    5. Re:Bit torrent by cheater512 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually the census data has a whole pile of interesting nuggets in it.
      I do have portions of it right now.

      I didn't notice all the javascript however and thought the download process was straight forward.
      Kudos to the ABS for using Creative Commons.

  2. 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 mjwx · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There may be inventive public servants, but I highly doubt they are inventive enough to make a stupid obfuscated download system just so that some guy would bittorrrent it, and thereby save the government a small amount of money on bandwidth. I mean really.

      You've never worked in the APS have you. The fewer people you have to serve, the better your balance sheet looks. If someone else can do it, why not.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    2. 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.

    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.

      --
      Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
  3. Re:Criminals and retarded monkeys by Noir+Angellus · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... descended from criminals and retarded monkeys.

    No, we're not all descended from the English let alone Americans.

  4. Excellence in Government by edibobb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think that is really funny! They declare the data free and then make an inept attempt to force people to pay for it. It's almost as bad as copyrighting public laws.

    1. Re:Excellence in Government by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's almost as bad as copyrighting public laws.

      I'm not sure if you're joking here but the Australian government actually DOES copyright legal documents. For example to comply with telephone wiring regulations requires access to a document released by "Standards Australia" which costs about $200 last I checked. I don't doubt that the document was developed using public funds. I'm sure this shit happens a lot more than people realise.

  5. Damn Streisand Effect by istartedi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thanks a lot Slashdot. Now I have a sudden urge to know precisely how many married couples with the husbands between the ages of 30 and 32 inclusive have children in Queensland, and what the genders of and ages of the children are.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  6. 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/

  7. You Know What They're Up To? by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Interesting
    This follows on my "best method to get tech support from a computer person." You don't ask "How do you...?" You assert, loudly, within hearing range of the computer person "This is the absolute beset way to do it!" and provide a woefully incorrect method of getting to the result you're trying to achieve. One of these methods will have the computer person falling over himself to help you. Guess which one. Have I mentioned that I'm Evil lately?

    Anyway, they're pulling the same thing here. They want someone to gather up their data and present it in a nice package for free. The best way to do that is to drop an ineptly-presented steaming pile of crap on the internets. There'll probably be 15 open source projects to slice and dice it on github by the weekend, and it didn't cost the Australian government a dime! It's brilliant!

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

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

    Actually, he was facing over 50 years in prison.

  9. Re:Criminals and retarded monkeys by lisaparratt · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think you've answered your own question.

  10. 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.