[License-review] Request for approval by license steward: Tidepool Open Access to Health Data Software License

[Josh Berkus]

Howard,

> My name is Howard Look. I am President/CEO of Tidepool Project. We
> are a non-profit, (soon to be) open source project creating an open
> platform and applications to help reduce the burden on people with
> Type 1 Diabetes. We are proposing that we a new create a new license,
> the Tidepool Open Access to Health Data Software License.

Let me thank you for your tremendous thoroughness in preparing for this
license submission!  It's a real pleasure to receive.

Completely unrelated to approval, have you thought of simply calling it
the Health Data Software License?   The reason I ask is that you've
identified a clear need here, and if the license proves viable, it could
be a template for other projects for whom open data is important.

As a Developer member of this panel, I will comment that the license
seems clear to me as a programmer, its provisions are fairly easy to
understand, and it does not appear to duplicate any existing license.
As a programmer, I would be willing to use this license.

However, the lawyers need to argue about the language used, in which I
have no expertise whatsoever.  And, you know, whether an OSD-compliant
license can compel distributors to open up data.

> We hope that the Tidepool license is reusable, and put it in the
> category of "Special purpose licenses." We hope that it is reusable
> by other projects delivering hardware and software medical
> technology. We discussed this, for example, with members of the
> Implanted Cardiac Defibrillator community, who have similar desires
> as the diabetes community for open patient access to data.

Actually, I don't think this needs to be limited to Health data.  You
could easily tweak the license so that every mention of "Health Data"
was replaced with "Personal Data", and then the license would suddenly
be useful for tons of mobile apps which keep people's personal stuff.
Well, you'd have to change more than that, but you see what I'm getting at?

> (C) Open Health Data.  You must ensure that the Health Data remains
> Open to its Data Owner for a period of three years after the Health
> Data is first generated.

Why three years?  And what's the definition of "first generated"?

--Josh Berkus