Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Thursday, December 01, 2005

FAQ on using Creative Commons licenses for databases

Science Commons has released an extremely useful FAQ on Databases and Creative Commons. Here are some of the questions it answers:
Can a Creative Commons license be applied to a database?
What kinds of things can be licensed under a Creative Commons license? [...]
How will people know that they can use the factual information in a database?
If I apply a Creative Commons license to my database, does this mean people can replicate the database?
How does a database provider make sure it has the necessary authority to apply a Creative Commons license to a database?
What legal issues do Creative Commons licenses not cover?
I understand everything above and want to apply a Creative Commons license to my database. How do I go about doing that?

Note the Nature editorial today on using Creative Commons licenses for data (blogged immediately below). John Wilbanks, Director of Science Commons, wants researchers to use CC licenses for their data but also to realize that there are some complexities not raised in the Nature editorial.