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Ask HN: Legality of using previously open source data?

1 pointsby vfulco2almost 3 years ago
To protect the innocent&#x2F;guilty, I won&#x27;t name the company here.<p>1. Need a data source, which previously was open for commercial use, for one of my MVP features<p>2. After a merger, company now offers a &quot;no-cost&quot; license to use so long as proper attribution is given and brief approval process is completed. Have been talking with them off&#x2F;on multiple times for 12 months to gain access. Seems I am too small a company for them to really pay attention to regardless of their public statements re: access. I have even asked them to come up with a &quot;per api call&quot; fee that was fair to both parties (until I can get bigger and pay their ~$5K average minimum fee) but no luck so far.<p>3. Came across an academic study on github which used this company&#x27;s data from 1 year ago.<p>Am I allowed to use the old data set for my internal research and commercial purposes? I only want to do the right thing.<p>Thanks in advance!

2 comments

Nckpzalmost 3 years ago
I&#x27;m not an expert, but I think it depends on the license. My understanding is that some licenses are revocable and some aren&#x27;t.
nathanaldensralmost 3 years ago
Contact an intellectual property lawyer.