Legalities of a Mashup: A view of the collision between business and interoperability
Today's interoperability initiatives and web 2.0 environments are effectively providing users the ability to integrate content to address research questions or create new products and services. These mashups may be the combination of existing web APIs such as Google Maps API or simply a composite of map layers published from various web mapping servers.
This presentation outlines an investigation into the implications and legalities of combining content from independent sources. Who has copyright over the new product? Is there an issue over ownership? Who is responsible for disclaimers? How are commercial-in-confidence or culturally sensitive issues to be addressed? Are there methodologies that can simplify this complex mixing of components to progress our research or deliverables?
These business questions are inevitable, whether we conduct research, provide mandated services or develop commercial products. How we address them to our mutual benefit will determine our successes.