Licensing Status

3rd party data:

ICD-10 http://www.nhsia.nhs.uk/clinicalcoding/pages/licensing.asp#icd10
Seems to fits the description of needing written permission from the copyright holder, no recognition of free/open source software, maybe a licensing fee will apply?

LOINC http://www.loinc.org/license translates as free software
Per Ian: LOINC falls short as it restricts modification. IMHO this is not a big issue as we don't want to modify LOINC, and the licence is otherwise quite liberal. The only problem is with Debian packaging: a separate LOINC package is needed for "non-free".

Australian request and reporting codes http://www.austpath.uow.edu.au/index.cgi
Per Tim C: the former (request codes) is unsatisfactory, and the latter (reporting codes) is just vague with respect to the modifications that have been made to LOINC for Australian use. Worth contacting Michael Legge and ask him to clarify/resolve the licensing in a manner which is suitable for open source software.

References

• various clinical/social coding & classification at http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/infselct.htm
• "free software" is characterized at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html