Open Data Licenses

What is Open Data and how is it licensed?

Open Data means that “data and content can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose.

Open Data

Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose (subject, at most, to requirements that preserve provenance and openness).

Read the full Open Definition here.

Copyright and Licenses

Copyright is a form of intellectual property. It will affect you when you publish or share your own work, or when you cite or re-use the work of others, including modified or derivative versions. In brief:

• Copyright applies to all “intellectual creations with an individual character” (Swiss CopA)
• All works are protected as soon as they are created
• There are exceptions to copyright, e.g. quotations or private use
• While there is no globally binding law, mutual recognition of minimum standards exist between countries

Read more from Lib4RI’s website about Copyright and CC licenses.

Copyright grants the author of a work the recognition of their authorship as well as the exclusive right to decide on whether, when and where their work shall be published.

The Right Licenses

Applying appropriate licenses allows your work to be shared and reused while still ensuring that you, as the author, receive proper attribution and recognition in terms of copyright.

How do Open Data licenses help?

Licensing is important because it reduces uncertainty. Without a license you don’t know how to answer the following questions:

• When are you allowed to use this data?
• Are you allowed to give the data to others?
• Can you distribute your own changes to the data?

Licenses deliver clarity and simplicity and help to ensure interoperability. People can know at a glance, and without having to go through a whole lot of legal paragraphs, what they are allowed to do.

Licensing of Empa software

If you wish to distribute software developed at Empa to third parties, there are various licensing options. Check the page of the Empa Technology Tranfer group for more information.

Creative Commons (CC) Licenses

Creative Commons licenses give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law.

The presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work answers the question What can I do with this work?

How to get a CC License

Use Creative Commons tools to help share your work: CC chooser tool.

The CC chooser helps you determine which Creative Commons License is right for you in a few easy steps. If you are new to Creative Commons, you may also want to read licensing considerations below before you get started with the chooser. There are six different license types, look at the webpage here.

Check also the Lib4RI: CC licenses for more detailed information.