For a dataset to be considered as Open Data, it must be associated with an Open Licence.
The European Commission, as part of its ongoing work in relation to the PSI Directive, has issued guidelines on recommended licences and datasets. These guidelines encourage “the use of open licences, which should eventually become common practice across the Union”.
Following a public consultation on options for Ireland’s Open Data Licence, 14 responses were received. There was broad support for the use of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence from respondents. This licence lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon data, even commercially, as long as they credit the originator for the original creation. CC-BY is recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials. A licence statement and recommended disclaimer statements are included in the Open Data Technical Framework and should be used under the Open Data Initiative.
All data and metadata linked to data.gov.ie will be associated with the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) Licence, at a minimum. Public bodies may waive copyright and associate datasets with CC0, if that is considered appropriate.
The licence should be clearly identified in the metadata. Only datasets associated with the recommended Open Data Licence may be included on data.gov.ie. In the meantime, datasets clearly associated with another licence, such as the PSI Licence, may be linked to the Open Data portal provided a commitment is made to using the Open Standard licence within the accepted timeframe.
Licence Statement
Under the CC-BY Licence, users must acknowledge the source of the Information in their product or application. Where the Information Provider does not provide a specific attribution statement users should include, or link to, this attribution statement: “Contains Irish Public Sector Data licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence”.
Multiple Attributions
If using data from several Information Providers and listing multiple attributions is not practical in a product or application, users may include a URI or hyperlink to a resource that contains the required attribution statements.
Disclaimer
All data linked to the Open Data portal is published “as is”. The Information is licensed 'as is' and the Information Provider and/or Licensor excludes all representations, warranties, obligations and liabilities in relation to the Information to the maximum extent permitted by law.
The Information Provider and/or Licensor are not liable for any errors or omissions in the Information and shall not be liable for any loss, injury or damage of any kind caused by its use. The Information Provider does not guarantee the continued supply of the Information.
Exemptions
This licence does not cover personal data in the information. Nor does it cover third party rights (including, but not limited to, patents, copyright, database rights or trademarks).
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