Recommendations on licensing rights for open data
Licence rights for free use
In order for data to be made available and reused in an ‘open’ manner within the framework of open data projects, the rights of use for accompanying content such as images, videos and texts must be clearly defined. This applies to licensing as well as other rights such as the right to one's own image in the case of persons depicted.
Creative Commons: Standard for open licences
For data to meet the criteria of open data it must be structured in a uniform way and made available in a machine-readable format so that it can be filtered, searched and processed by other applications.
The order and labelling of data is perhaps the most important basis of open data. Without it, information will not be found.
To structure and uniformly describe data the de facto global standard Schema.org is widely used. Schema.org is an ontology, i.e., a collection of terms to describe certain things on the web and their relationship to each other. On websites, Schema.org is integrated into the source code of the page and not visible to users. Embedding makes the content machine-readable and machine interpretable.
The following licence types are suitable for open data:
CC0 (Public Domain Dedication) – ‘No Rights Reserved’: Waiver of all copyrights, maximum freedom of use.
CC BY (Attribution) – Permits any use, including commercial use, provided that the author is credited.
CC BY-SA (Attribution – ShareAlike) – allows use and adaptation, including commercial use, provided that the author is credited and the work is licensed under the same conditions.
These licences allow free use and redistribution and meet the requirements for open data.
Visual for marking a CC0 license under Creative Commons
Which licence is the right fit?
The following infographic can help you choose the right CC licence:
What else should be considered?
In addition to licensing, personal rights must also be observed. If individuals are recognisable in images, consent for publication is usually required – especially for public or commercial use. Additional rights may also apply to buildings, works of art or trademarks.
Further information
FAQs on open data at https://open-data-germany.org/open-data-faq/
FAQ on Creative Commons licences at https://open-data-germany.org/faq-zu-creative-commons-lizenzen/
DZT changelog: https://changelog-dzt-kg.readme.io/docs/211-licensing
Note: This information is provided for guidance only and does not constitute advice. Each organisation is responsible for checking the rights to the content used and coordinating its use accordingly.