FAQ: Licences

  • Q

    What is the difference between the Creative Commons Licences and the META-SHARE licences?

    A

    Creative Commons licences are the first option recommended by META-SHARE, given its orientation towards open data; they allow the LRs to be shared with everyone (with some restrictions, if needed).

    The second legal layer is a set of licences that are CC-based and allow use and exploitation of the Resources while permitting the LR Owner to have full control over the Resource distribution. These “No Redistribution” licences will effectively help get “closed” resources safely out to the community.


    Please, note that the META-SHARE Commons Licences, which allowed META-SHARE Members and Depositors to make their resources available to other network members only, are about to be discontinued. 


  • Q

    Do I lose control over my data if my metadata becomes available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence?

    A

    NO! It is the metadata that is shared under CC-BY, NOT the data itself.

    The resource is available under the licence chosen by the data owner or distributor, which can be any one of the licences recommended by META-SHARE.


  • Q

    The licence I have to sign in order to get a resource requires attribution to the LR owner. Is there a standard text that I could use?

    A

    There is no standard attribution statement. It depends on the objectives of the licensor and the creator of the work. For your convenience, we propose the following statement template:

    "This LR has been created by <creator's name AND/ OR URL> and is licensed by <licensor's name AND / OR URL> under a <licence name AND licence URL>, as accessed via URL>".

  • Q

    Can a resource have multiple licensing?

    A

    A resource can have a multiple-licensing schema in the following cases:

    a.  If it is a composite resource. Here we discern two cases:

    i.  the resource constitutes of a content component and a service component (e.g. a corpus accessed through an access s/w). In this case, the resource has two licences attached to it that actually work complementarily to each other; the data might have one licence and the s/w another.

    ii.  the resource constitutes of various data components, each one having different availability conditions (one part free and one with various restrictions).

    In the above cases, the components need to be clearly identifiable in order to be licensed separately and each licence should point at the respective component.

    b.  If the same resource is given for different purposes under different restrictions (e.g. for commercial purposes at-a-fee basis, while for academic use for free). In this case the same resource has two licences attached to it, each one catering for the specific terms of use.

    c.  if there is a composite resource (service) that has one licence for its the whole and, additionally, different licences for its constituent parts (assuming they are decomposable), then three licences are required or a single "container" licence for the service accompanied by the two respective licences, i.e. for s/w and content/data.


  • Q

    Do you have licences for web services (SaaS)?

    A

    Software tools and network services are either provided though one of the standard Open Source licenses or under a custom commercial license.

    Open Source Licenses proposed by META-SHARE include BSD, GPL, LGPL, Apache and AGPL. Other open licences are not excluded, but LRs providers are being advised to always keep in mind certain selection criteria that will allow their LRs to be legally easy and straightforward to share.

  • Q

    I need help with choosing the right licence. What should I do?

    A

    You can have a look here and also check the complete list of all the available licences and the tabular presentation of the features of the Creative Commons licences and of the META-SHARE No Redistribution Set.

  • Q

    Do I have to sign any document in order to use the META-SHARE tool?

    A

    By using META-SHARE Services, you agree to the terms listed in the Terms of Service document (at the bottom of each page of the tool). There are two versions of this document:

    If you HAVE registered to META-SHARE, you have to comply with the Terms of Service for registered users.

    If you HAVE NOT registered to META-SHARE, you have to comply with the Terms of Service for unregistered users.


  • Q

    Do I have to sign any document before I upload my resources to the META-SHARE tool?

    A

    You have to sign the Depositor's Agreement, where you state that you have cleared all IPR issues on the metadata and the data, that you licence the metadata under a Creative Commons Attribution International (CC-BY) version 4.0 or higher, or the EU Open Metadata Licence, and that you have not infringed any law by uploading the resources.

    For more details, see the Depositor's Agreement.