From:<br><br> <strong><a href="http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/72"><span style="font-weight: normal;">http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/72</span></a><br><br><br><br>The short version of the story</strong><br>
<br>You can <strong>now</strong> license your data to be shared openly by using the new <a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/" target="_blank">Open Data Licenses </a><br><br><ul><li><a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/pddl/" target="_blank">Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL)</a> — “Public Domain for data/databases”</li>
<li><a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/" target="_blank">Attribution License (ODC-By)</a> — “Attribution for data/databases”</li><li><a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/" target="_blank">Open Database License (ODC-ODbL)</a> — “Attribution Share-Alike for data/databases”</li>
</ul><br><br>Designed by the <a href="http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/" target="_blank">Scientific Commons</a>.<br><br>At the <a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/" target="_blank">http://www.opendatacommons.org/</a><br>
<br><br><hr><br><br><strong>The full version of the story</strong><br><br>The <a href="http://sciencecommons.org/" target="_blank">Scientific Commons</a> through its <a href="http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/" target="_blank">Scholar Copyrights Project</a> has been working on a <a href="http://www.sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-data-protocol" target="_blank">Protocol for implementing Open Access Data</a>, based on:<br>
<br><ul><li><a href="http://www.opendefinition.org/" target="_blank">The Open Knowledge Definition</a></li><li><a href="http://www.soros.org/openaccess" target="_blank">The Budapest Open Access Initiative</a></li></ul><br>
The <a href="http://www.sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-data-protocol/" target="_blank">Protocol</a> is designed to satisfy the following requirements:<br><br><ul><li>Promote <strong>legal predictability</strong> and certainty</li>
<li><strong>Easy</strong> to use and understand</li><li>Impose the <strong>lowest</strong> possible <strong>transaction cost</strong> on users</li></ul><br>This effort has born fruit very recently in the form of the first <a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/" target="_blank">licenses</a> specifically designed for <a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/guide/" target="_blank">openly sharing scientific data</a>.<br>
<br>As strong supporters of <a href="http://www.kitware.com/blog/home/post/3" target="_blank">Open Science</a> and its three pillars,<br><br><ul><li><a href="http://www.opensource.org/" target="_blank">Open Source</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.earlham.edu/%7Epeters/fos/overview.htm" target="_blank">Open Access</a></li><li><a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/" target="_blank">Open Data</a></li></ul><br>we at Kitware have been anxiously looking for such licenses for several years, particularly to use them in the <a href="http://www.kitware.com/products/midas.html" target="_blank">MIDAS </a> database server, and the <a href="http://www.insight-journal.org/" target="_blank">Insight Journal</a>. Today we are very happy to have found the answer to this quest.<br>
<br><strong><br>Why do we need specific licenses for Data?</strong><br><br>Why not simply use one of the many <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html" target="_blank">Open Source Licenses</a>, or any of the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses" target="_blank">Creative Commons Licenses</a> ?<br>
<br>The reason is that <br><ul><li><a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html" target="_blank">Open Source Licenses</a> are crafted to address the particularities of <strong>Software</strong></li><li><a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses" target="_blank">Creative Commons Licenses</a> are crafted to address <strong>Works of Art</strong> such as novels, poems, music, video, and sculpture</li>
</ul><br><br><strong>Why does Data need a license?<br></strong><br>Data itself, particularly scientific data, <strong>is not covered by copyright</strong>, because, being "facts", it lacks the element of creative expression that copyright is intended to "protect". <br>
<br>That is, the expression<br><br><ul><li><em>"The electron has a mass of 9.10938188 x 10 ^ -31 kilograms"<br></em></li></ul><br>is a <strong>fact</strong> that <strong>should not</strong> be controlled <strong>exclusively</strong> by any single individual or institution.<br>
<br>However, the expression<br><br><ul><li><em>"It
was a drizzling morning when Thompson glimpsed in awe through the visor
of his fantasmagoric catodic tube, to face the reality that the mass of
the electron was close to 1x10^-31 kilograms. Such magnificent
nothingness !"</em></li></ul><br>is a small piece of <strong>literary art</strong> and deserves indeed the state-granted monopoly that the US government generously awards me for the duration of my <strong>lifetime</strong> plus <strong>seventy</strong> years (Thank You Very Much!).<br>
<br>However,
a number of legal liabilities create uncertainty for data users that
prevents them from freely using and distributing data.<br><br>In
particular, in certain jurisdictions, databases are covered by
copyright, and therefore the partial use of their data goes into the
gray zone in which you must make sure that you know a good lawyer.<br><br><br><strong>The Open Data Licenses</strong><br><br>The new <a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/" target="_blank">Open Data Licenses</a> are: <br>
<br><ul><li><a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/pddl/" target="_blank">Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL)</a> — “Public Domain for data/databases”</li><li><a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/" target="_blank">Attribution License (ODC-By)</a> — “Attribution for data/databases”</li>
<li><a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/" target="_blank">Open Database License (ODC-ODbL)</a> — “Attribution Share-Alike for data/databases”</li></ul><br>In order to apply the license to your data, you simply need to append the following notice:<br>
<br><br>This <strong>Monkey-Brain-MRI-Database</strong> is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License,<br><a href="http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/1.0" target="_blank">http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/by/1.0</a><br>
<br><br>More details on how to manage these licenses are available at:<br><br><ul><li><a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/faq/" target="_blank">http://www.opendatacommons.org/faq/ (Open Data FAQ)<br></a></li><li><a href="http://www.opendatacommons.org/guide/" target="_blank">http://www.opendatacommons.org/guide/ (How to Make Your Data Open)<br>
</a></li></ul><br><hr><br>Our sincere thanks to the <a href="http://sciencecommons.org/about/" target="_blank">Science Commons</a> for making another quantum leap towards the Open Sharing of information that will trigger real <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Clause" target="_blank">Progress of Science and Technology</a>.<br>
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