DMOZ was and is freely licensed though. This one makes for a nice proof of concept, but there's no mention of availability or reusability for any of this data.
DMOZ had an interesting license, as I recall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Directory_License
https://web.archive.org/web/20070813215202/http://www.dmoz.o...
"The Free Software Foundation describes the ODL as a non-free license"
But your point is a good one and well taken.
It was relicensed as CC-BY in 2011, however. AIUI, the ODL even predates CC.
You'll love Curlie which was created by a number of DMOZ alumni
Ohh.nostalgia
http://www.odp.org/homepage.php (archive)