INVESTIGAM — E-CIENCIADATOS: USAGE LICENCE
The usage licence is a legal instrument whereby the party possessing the intellectual property rights allows third parties to make certain uses of the data without violating said rights. They are a simple, standard way of granting legal permission.
These licences establish the conditions of use, distribution and reuse of the datasets.
e-cienciaDatos, in accordance with the guidelines of Open Knowledge International, recommends using public domain licences, such as:
- Creative Commons Zero (CC0 1.0): This licence means releasing the intellectual property rights by offering the data in the public domain. Use of the data is permitted with no restrictions whatsoever. Under this licence, the data may be copied, modified, distributed and made public without seeking permission, even for commercial purposes.
- Open Data Commons, Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL): Similar to CC0, but it is specifically intended for databases and their contents (data), as a whole or on an individual basis. It means placing the data/databases in the public domain. It allows for sharing, copying, distributing and using the database and/or the data with no restrictions whatsoever; creating other works on the basis thereof, and changing or transforming them.
Other licences may also be chosen, such as:
- Attribution (CC BY 4.0): Allows users to make full use of the datasets, including permission to modify the data, with no commitment to share the resulting data, even for commercial purposes. This is the licence which allows for greatest reuse, provided that authorship is attributed. It is recommended to achieve the greatest possible dissemination and use of data subject to the licence.
- Attribution-Share Alike (CC BY-SA 4.0): Allows for the distribution of adaptations or the creation of new works based on the data, provided that they are shared under a similar licence. By doing this, the attempt is made to ensure that any derivative works are shared, as well.
- Attribution License (ODC-By): Attribution for data/databases. This licence makes it possible to share (copy, distribute and use the database), create (produce works on the basis of the database) and adapt (modify, transform and build upon the material in the database).
- Open Data License (ODC-OdbL): Attribution, share-alike for data/databases. This licence allows for all of the above and, in addition to the attribution, any adaptation of the databases, or derivative works.
- Specific licences may also be used for software, approved by the Open Source Iniciative (OSI): GNU General Public License Versions, MIT license, BSC License, as well as others.
Further information at: