In a July 3, 2007 press release the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) announced it is releasing a license for non-commercial use of its Media Tracker, a free online database containing more than 5 million records of government sources, corporate disclosure documents and original research that allows anyone to identify media ownership, lobbying activities and communications sources by ZIP code, city or state.

An excerpt from the release:

The Center for Public Integrity on Tuesday released a license for the non-commercial use of its Media Tracker, a free online database at the heart of the Center's "Well Connected" project on media and telecommunications. This new license, featured on the Center's website, gives the public and organizations the freedom to copy, adapt and redistribute Media Tracker data at no charge.

The Media Tracker database contains more than 5 million records of government sources, corporate disclosure documents and original research that allows anyone to identify media ownership, lobbying activities and communications sources by ZIP code, city or state. The Center expects the license, created in partnership with the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in New York, to be a model for other social science databases, particularly in the fields of telecommunications, media and technology.

"Increasingly, the citizenry and Washington policymakers alike turn to the Media Tracker for key data about the digital sectors of our society and economy," said Drew Clark, senior fellow and "Well Connected" project manager. "This new license will allow bloggers, researchers, advocates and lobbyists to freely make use of these datasets in a way that contributes to more complete information and better public policy."

"It seems self-evident that public policy should be based upon publicly available data," said Joe Karaganis, director of the SSRC's Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere, "but this not the case in the current media and communications policy environment. The Media Tracker policy license is the first license to comply with the Data Consortium's public policy licensing policies..."

Click here to read the press release in its entirety on the CPI website.