According to Reusable rule, data should have a license defining conditions of using a dataset. You should be aware of your  institution policy about data accessibility before choosing the license. Moreover, the use of specified licenses may be required by agencies financing research. The use of ready-made (standard) licenses which allow to save time needed for creating a new, own type of license is a good and common  practice. At the stage of creating DMP a license which will be used to make data accessible should be defined.

Creative Commons (CC) licenses are among open licenses and GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT license) are free software licenses.

Creative Commons is an international project, with a wide range of ready touse licenses established, leading to easier process of accessing data. There is a list of CC licenses in 4.0 version, which are in use currently, with a short description. It must be remembered that they were created for different  items, not only for datasets, that is why you must be sure if a chosen license fits into your dataset.

Creative Commons license versions:

Attribution - CC BY
It allows others to disseminate, change and create new items or sets based on licenced resources also commercially. Determining the authorship of such dataset is the requirement.

Attribution-ShareAlike - CC BY SA
Allows to copy, modify and disseminate a set under the condition that the authorship must be determined and dependent data dissemination on the same conditions.

Attribution-NoDerivatives - CC BY ND
Enables others to reuse data in any way under the condition that the authorship is recognised. However the license does not allow to modify the set.

Attribution-NonCommercial - CC BY NC
Allows other to copy, modify and disseminate the dataset for as long as the authorship is recognised and is used for non-commercial purposes.

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike - CC BY NC SA
Allows others to copy, modify and disseminate data under the condition that both original and modified datasets can be used non-commercially and can be disseminated with the same license.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives - CC BY NC ND
This CC license is the most restrictive one. It allows only to download a dataset and to share with others, under the condition that the authorship is recognised. The dataset cannot be modified or used commercially.

Do you know that?

There have been created licenses aiming especially at licencing databases within Open Data Commons project, such as:

  • Public Domain Dedication License (PDDL) - a public domain for databases. It allows to download, share and modify databases unlimitedly.
  • Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) - a license with the only condition of recognising authorship to copy and modify databases.
  • Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODC-ODbL) - an open license allowing to copy, process and disseminate databases under the condition of recognising authorship and disseminating on the same conditions.