Background and Interpretation

The Managing, Distributing and Pricing Government Information (Intellectual Property) Directive (IP Directive) establishes requirements for the management and pricing of Ontario government intellectual property assets.

The IP Directive was issued in 1998, before a mandate for open government was established in Ontario. While a stated purpose of the directive is “to promote open government by providing fair and equitable access to intellectual property,” the directive does not explicitly address the current open government practice of releasing data and information to the public under an open licence.

However, it is consistent with the spirit and intent of the IP Directive for ministries to be able to apply open licences to data and information for the purpose of promoting open government.

Guidelines: Applying Open Licences

The IP Directive provides two options for licensing Ontario government information:

  • Commercial licences, and
  • Non-commercial licences.

There are specific requirements in the directive that apply to commercial licences, including a requirement that licences include an appropriate indemnity clause. Under the directive, ministries are responsible for determining what constitutes an appropriate indemnity clause.

This Bulletin provides guidance on interpreting this requirement in the context of the open government mandate:

  • Commercial reuse: Materials released under an open licence may be used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. An open licence should be treated as a commercial licence for the purposes of the directive.
  • Indemnity clauses: Consistent with the principles of open government, open licences typically do not include indemnity clauses. Ministries may determine that it is appropriate to use an open licence that does not include an indemnity clause in order to promote open government. In doing so, they are not considered to be in breach of the directive under this Interpretation Bulletin.

Ministries continue to be responsible for performing a robust risk assessment, including consulting with legal counsel, in order to determine the suitability of applying an open licence.

Ministries must follow the established processes laid out in the directive, such as routing commercial licencing requests through Publications Ontario. Ministries seeking to apply an open licence must ensure their ministry risk assessment is performed before sending requests to Publications Ontario.

Questions?

For questions concerning the interpretation of the IP Directive, please contact Information, Privacy and Archives Division (MGCS) at  web.foi.mgcs@ontario.ca.

For questions concerning the process of how to use any of the licence types within the
Directive please contact Publications Ontario (OSS) at copyright@ontario.ca.