It's not clear how the "Catalyst Research Alliance" is associated with University of Michigan. It's not hosted on umich.edu, there's no information on https://catalystresearch.io [0] about any agreements or partnership with UMich, and there's not even any information at all on any people running "Catalyst Research Alliance" -- which is normal for shady SaaS startups but very very unusual for academic research alliances. It's not clear that Catalyst Research Alliance obtained the rights to "re-sell" the database.

I believe the datasets are available for free here on UMich.edu[1]: So it's not clear that "CRA" has a "right" to "license" these to anyone. CRA also "licenses" this freely available genomics database: https://ctdbase.org [2]

IANAL, but per LinkedIn[3], the CRA founder Doug Eisner is one (Boston University Law, 1992). Perhaps he knows something I don't about selling licenses to other people's intellectual property.

The MICASE license at umich.edu states:

MICASE Fair Use Statement[4] MICASE is owned by the Regents of the University of Michigan, who hold the copyright. The database has been developed by the English Language Institute, and the web interface by Digital Library Production Services. The database is freely available at the MICASE website for study, teaching and research purposes, and copies of the transcripts may be distributed, as long as either this statement of availability or the citation given below appears in the text. However, if any portion of this material is to be used for commercial purposes, such as for textbooks or tests, permission must be obtained in advance and a license fee may be required.

MICUSP Fair Use Statement[5] The Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP) is owned by the Regents of the University of Michigan (UM), who hold the copyright. The corpus has been developed by researchers at the UM English Language Institute. The corpus files are freely available for study, research and teaching. However, if any portion of this material is to be used for commercial purposes, such as for textbooks or tests, permission must be obtained in advance and a license fee may be required.

The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database[6] CTDTM is provided to enhance knowledge and encourage progress in the scientific community. It is to be used only for research and educational purposes. Medical treatment decisions should not be made based on the information in CTD. Any reproduction or use for commercial purpose is prohibited without the prior express written permission of the MDI Biological Laboratory and NC State University.

So the HN headline is slightly wrong. The University of Michigan is making this data available for free for non-profit or academic research purposes, and also offers custom commercial licensing for the datasets. It's possible that CRA is running a legitimate license reselling service with dubious value-add services on top, but it's definitely not clear what their relationships with these universities really are.

0: https://catalystresearch.io

1: https://lsa.umich.edu/eli/language-resources/micase-micusp.h...

2: https://ctdbase.org

3: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougeisner/

4: https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/eli-assets/elidocuments/MI...

5: https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/eli-assets/elidocuments/MI...

6: https://ctdbase.org/about/legal.jsp