Monthly Archives: June 2009

Open Database License (ODbL) v1.0 Released

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19

We are delighted to announce the release of v1.0 of the Open Database License (ODbL):

http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/

The Open Database License (ODbL) is an open license for data and databases which includes explicit attribution and share-alike requirements.

This license, the first of its kind, is a major step forward for open data. There are currently very few licenses available suited to data and databases and none which provide for share-alike (existing share-alike licenses such as the GPL, GFDL and CC By-SA are all unsuitable for data).

The development of the ODbL, has been a major effort extending over more than one and half years with an intensive consultation and review period for the last 6 months. We’d like to express our thanks to the communities and individuals who have contributed during this time.

Open Database License (ODbL) v1.0 Release Candidate 2 Available

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2

The Open Database License (ODbL) v1.0 “Release Candidate 2″ is now available at:

http://www.opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/

As expected there haven’t been many changes from the first Release Candidate. The two main alterations are:

  1. Removal of section 4.7 related to reverse engineering. This may be reintroduced in later versions but has been left out here in order to remove any possible concerns about license compatibility on Produced Works.
  2. Explicit statement that derivative databases used in the creation of Publicly Available Produced Works are also subject to share-alike.

With the completion of this second round of comments we believe this text is now in final “1.0″ form. In order to allow interested individuals and communities time to review the latest set of changes, as well as to provide an opportunity to catch any last minute “bugs” we are going to provide a one final, brief, comment period closing on Friday 19th of June at 1200GMT. Full details on how to comment can be found on the ODbL home page.

In preparation for the 1.0 release we have also continued to improve the FAQs as well as providing a new open data guide. Any feedback on these is also very welcome.