W. Christopher Lenhardt Associate Director, Information Services; Deputy Director, SEDAC Robert R. Downs Senior Digital Archivist; SEDAC Archives Manager Robert S. Chen Director & Senior Research Scientist; SEDAC Manager; CODATA Secretary-General Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) The Earth Institute at Columbia University Creative Commons and Data Dissemination at an Academic Data Center: Issues and Potential Benefits

Data Center Goals Related to Rights Management Support re-distribution, re-use data Seek to document uses of data Provide attribution Track provenance Happy users!

Traditional Data Licensing: General Issues Time consuming Paperwork Negotiations Confusing language Difficult to track/maintain records Separate from the data Not really machine- readable Uploaded on January 31, 2007 by sbluerock

Data Center Permissions Issues: Part 1 – Obtaining Permissions From Data Providers Identifying ownership Author(s) and organizations? Work-for-hire? Public domain? Does representative have the authority to grant rights to us? Requesting non-exclusive rights Explaining rights request and terminology Avoiding Use Restrictions (ie; educational use only) Negotiating for right to allow 3rd party dissemination to avoid later negotiations on behalf of re-distributors

Data Center Permissions Issues: Part 2 – Providing Permissions for Use and Re-distribution Identifying the exact title of the data resource for which authorization is sought Determining the exact rights being requested Determining whether the requested rights may be granted Did data provider grant such rights to us so that we can authorize others. Is the request in writing? Formality for providing rights to data resource Email? Facsimile of signed statement? Original signed statement Better to have rights statement fixed to or embedded in resource

Copyright Applicability Depends on Content Copyright Potentially Applicable Copyright Not Necessarily Applicable GPW grids Original boundaries and population data ENTRI Database Treaty text Natural Disaster Hotspots Datasets Underlying hazard & vulnerability data GRUMP Maps Source data Remote Sensing Case Studies and Reports Satellite remote sensing imagery Metadata Standard metadata field titles

Somewhat overwhelming for Other Related Issues How to handle legacy data sets where ownership might be murky Potential need to educate users Within a university that maintains a measure of control over intellectual property, can we use CC licensing? Somewhat overwhelming for Creators Data managers Users

Creative Commons: A Potential Solution? Non-exclusive Non-revocable Formats Designed to be easily understood by lay persons Acceptable to legal community Machine-readable Searchable Can be packaged with the data http://creativecommons.org/

Some Related Trends Efforts to promote access to data through open journals and journals devoted to data Efforts to create science commons Creative Commons, Science Commons project http://sciencecommons.org/ CODATA – Global Information Commons for Science Initiative http://www.codata.org/wsis/GICSI-prospectus.html Increase in volume and complexity of digital data and digital databases is highlighting the need to do a better job with copyright and licensing of these data IASSIST 2006 Session C1: Data Issues in the Sciences: An Environmental Scan  Data Access and Preservation across the Sciences: New Ideas and Initiatives Bob Chen, Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) The Science Commons Data Project John Wilbanks, Science Commons The Scientific Data Commons and Non-conventional Sources Harlan Onsrud, University of Maine

CIESIN - Now Adding CC License to Maps We Create and Disseminate Part of graphic Added to metadata

Approach to Using CC Licensing at CIESIN Regarding potentially complex ownership, we are proceeding cautiously. Starting with data products we create de novo and will branch out from there as we gain more experience. We believe that our use of the CC license is consistent with University policy. Working with the University Librarian on this issue.

Helping Data Providers with CC Licensing Fostering workflow for online data submission to digital repository Giving data providers CC licensing choices Asking data providers for rights to preserve data

Summary of Potential Benefits and tradeoffs for Data Creators, Data Managers and Users, from Adoption of CC Licensing Easier for data managers Easier for users Visible CC license may encourage use of data and data products Opportunity for CC licensing may encourage data submission May reduce negotiation of rights from data authors Reduce need to negotiate Reduce level of effort to negotiate Rights descriptions may encourage development of derived products Non-Exclusive CC licenses may encourage redistribution Could reduce negotiation for data redistribution rights Could reduce requests for and awareness of re-publication Could limit tracking re-published data developed by SEDAC Potential for multiple distributors of SEDAC distributed data Could influence decisions on accession and distribution Potential to track usage through the license