Thing 8: Licensing data for reuse
Understand the importance of data licensing, learn about Creative Commons and see how licensing data can assist in creating links with business and industry.
Creative Commons & sharing data
Activity 1: The cans and cannots of licensing
Consider this scenario: You’ve found a dataset you are interested in. You’ve downloaded it. Excellent! But do you know what you can and cannot do with the data? The answer lies in data licensing. Licensing is critical to enabling data to be reused and cited.
1. Start by reading thie following brief introduction to licensing research data.
2. Now have a closer look at the below poster from creativecommons.org.au.
Click on the descriptions for more information. Notice they have used CC BY as the licensing information at the bottom of the poster so you know what you can do with the poster itself.
3. Browse through the (21) slides from a presentation ANDS gave in June 2016 about licensing data.
Activity 2: Licensing for data reuse
Enabling reuse of data can speed up research and innovation. Licensing is critical to enabling data reuse.
1. Start by watching the following 4.30min video in which Dr Kevin Cullen from the University of New South Wales explains their approach to licensing which aims to strengthen the University’s relationship with business and industry.
2. Now read the Australian Government Public Data Policy Statement (2 pages) that was released in December 2015. Note in particular, the last dot point.
3. If you have questions, take a look at the ANDS list of research data licensing and copyright FAQs:
Consider: if you would use the Creative Commons Non-Derivative license for your data.
Creative Commons Licences (the alternative to Copyright)
What do CC licenses look like?
The Australian Governments Open Access and Licensing Framework (AusGOAL) website is a huge source of information on the various Open Access licensing options. Informaton below have been sourced from the AusGOAL website.
Attribution
CC BY
This licence lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation.
This is the most accommodating of licences offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.(CC BY) is the most popular licence and provides the greatest opportunities for re-use of information.
View licence Deed | View Legal Code
Attribution-ShareAlike
CC BY-SA
This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and licence their new creations under the identical terms.
This licence is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licences. All new works based on yours will carry the same licence, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the licence used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.
Attribution-NoDerivatives
CC BY-ND
This licence allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.
Attribution-NonCommercial
CC BY-NC
This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA
This licence lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
CC BY-NC-ND
This licence is the most restrictive of the six licences, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.