During the #OpenDefra hack I attended an interesting session on ‘blocked data’. There is a long list of data yet to be released as open for which there is an equally long list of reasons. The most noticeable one cited to me was ‘the right to be forgotten’, with various other data protection issues also raised. This is where I thought you were going with “ the reality was much more complex and nuanced”, for if an ‘open’ licence is preventing these data sets being released is there not a fourth way of free access? By that I mean the data is accessible by all, but remains controlled via terms & conditions. These would simply be in place to protect the legal obligations of the data publisher. They would not restrict access but may have onward restrictions, for example obliging the user to maintain a link to the original data publisher before onward sharing. Assuming that T&C’s do address the legal blockers, does this not provide a faster route (or first step) to publication than trying to resolve the legal barriers to open publication?