GeoIP database comparison

[Wendy Seltzer]

Nick Mathewson wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 4:58 AM, Karsten Loesing
> <karsten.loesing at gmx.net> wrote:
>  [...]
>> In summary, I think we should ship Maxmind's free database with Tor, if
>> the license permits it. I'm hoping to get much better usage statistics
>> results for smaller countries like Tunisia from the free Maxmind. Also,
>> Maxmind has more users and is therefore less likely to provide a broken
>> update and not noticing for weeks.
> 
> http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/LICENSE.txt
> 
> This license doesn't look too bad to me.  Their software (which we
> wouldn't use, so it doesn't matter) is LGPL; the database appears to
> be under a old-BSD-like license, with the notorious advertising
> clause.  The advertising clause is annoying, but not a show-stopper,
> since we aren't GPL.  (We're already stuck with an advertising clause
> anyway, from OpenSSL's SSLeay license.)
> 
> One of the lawyers should double-check me here, though.

Check++

Facts and collections of facts aren't copyrightable in the US. Since Tor
distributes world-wide, it doesn't hurt to put in the attribution clause.

--Wendy

-- 
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy at seltzer.org
phone: +1.914.374.0613
Fellow, Silicon Flatirons Center at University of Colorado Law School
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html
http://www.chillingeffects.org/
https://www.torproject.org/