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Data licensing (and other legal issues)�

Digital Curation Centre

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 UK: Scotland License.

because good research needs good data

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Outline

What licences are for – and which to use
Other types of legal agreement
Other legal considerations

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Two types of legal issue

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Things that the law requires you to consider

Things that the law allows you to do

Licences are in the second category – a tool you can use to achieve goals you want

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What the law allows – licensing & trust agreements

Licences allow you to constrain how others use your data
They range from very open to very restrictive
You MUST own the data in order to be able to licence it
Licences unlikely to help with sensitive data – seek help, use trusted repositories

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Data and copyright

Ability to copyright data varies throughout the world
Europe also offers ‘database right’ – applies even if data cannot be copyrighted.
International licences help avoid this legal minefield
Standard licences strongly recommended – we are not all legal experts

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License your data for reuse

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CREATIVE COMMONS LIMITATIONS

NC Non-Commercial

What counts as commercial?

SA Share Alike

Reduces interoperability

ND No Derivatives

Severely restricts use

www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/

how-guides/license-research-data

Outlines pros and cons of each approach and gives practical advice on how to implement your licence

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Types of data licence

Creative Commons V4.0 CC-BY or CC0 strongly recommended
If your data includes/derived from other data – what licence applied to it?
Licence ‘stacking’ can be a problem
See also CODATA/RDA study on legal interoperability

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Nature, Wednesday 3^rd August 2016

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When licences aren’t enough

Sensitive data will often require a data access agreement
NOT a licence – nothing to do with copyright
Places constraints on what a user may do with data
Can be specific to each use
Common requirement – do not attempt to re-identify individuals
Often related to the CONSENT given by research subjects
So… important you understand your data sources & the consent given

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Two types of legal issue

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Things that the law requires you to consider

Things that the law allows you to do

Your organisation must know what data it possesses
It must know whether exceptions to access may apply
It must know if some of the data belongs to others
It must know what data once existed, but has now been deleted – and why
These are difficult questions for most of us!

Consequences for researchers - requirements

So document those appraisal decisions!

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Things the law requires you to do

Data protection – when human subjects involved
Honouring licences on data you are re-using
Freedom Of Information
Environmental Information Regulation

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Requirements

Data protection

If human subjects are involved
Common European framework
Informed consent essential
Make consent broad to allow reuse
Protect data
Provide subject access
Right of correction

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FOI & EIR

FOI = Freedom of Information
EIR = Environmental Information Regulations
First is nation-state specific; second from European regulation
Both have similar effects, but differ in detail
Provide general right to access data to the public

Some exceptions – but they are limited

Even without access – may need to confirm if data exists

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Two types of legal issue

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Things that the law requires you to consider

Things that the law allows you to do

Your organisation must know what data it possesses
It must know whether exceptions to access may apply
It must know if some of the data belongs to others
It must know what data once existed, but has now been deleted – and why
These are difficult questions for most of us!

Consequences for researchers - requirements

So document those appraisal decisions!

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Appraisal and deposit

Relevance to Mission – including any legal/funder requirement to retain the data beyond its immediate use.
Scientific or Historical Value – significance and relationship to publications etc.
Uniqueness – can it be found elsewhere / if we don’t preserve it, who will?
Potential for Redistribution – quality / IP / ethical concerns are addressed.
Non-Replicability – either impossible to replicate (e.g. atmospheric or social science data) or not financially viable.
Economic Case – costs of managing and preserving the resource stack up well against potential future benefits.
Full Documentation – surrounding / contextual information necessary to facilitate future discovery, access, and reuse is adequate.

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How to Appraise & Select Research Data for Curation

Angus Whyte, Digital Curation Centre, and Andrew Wilson, Australian National Data Service (2010)

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Roles and Responsibilities

What data to keep

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Conclusions

Licencing is the easy part
Researchers should not necessarily be worrying about all the other legal issues
Deposit in a trusted repository can be used to hand over responsibility
Data management planning helps with ALL of these things

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2021-11-08