License for opening a processed dataset from different sources

Licensing
1

Dear OpenMod Community,

We are working on a project for which we would like to open the data and the scripts. It would be great if someone can help in figuring out the feasible/best option for licensing the work. There is no restriction from our side.

The data has been downloaded from the source and the processing is done manually using QGIS. Thereafter the dataset is used to carry out calculations which is script based. I am planning to use MIT License for the scripts (but open to suggestion on alternatives). On the data side, I don’t know how/if it would be possible to open the processed data.

The following are the data sources and the processing done on it.

Parameter Processing Source License
Elevation Rasterization, Adjust Projection European Environment Agency policy based on Directive 2003/98/EC
Slope Calculate slope, rasterize, adjust projection European Environment Agency policy based on Directive 2003/98/EC
Land Quality Rate fields, rasterize, adjust projection European Environment Agency policy based on Directive 2003/98/EC
Protected Areas rasterize, adjust projection, assign values ProtectedPlanet2018 WDPA Data Licence
River Courses Extract data, assign values, rasterize Geofabrik ODbL
Population density Rerasterize CIESIN; JRC policy based on Decision 2011/833/EU
Railways Extract data, rasterize, assign values Geofabrik ODbL
Highways Extract data, rasterize, assign values Geofabrik ODbL
Electricity Grid Extract data, rasterize, assign values Geofabrik ODbL

Thanks a lot for your help.

Best,
Samarth

2 Likes
2

Dear @samarth.tu-dresden,

happy to see more and more projects going open.
We had (and will have) lots of discussions about open licenses.

I tired to collect and prepare some key information.
Please have a look at the license matrix.

Since ODbL is a copyleft (share-alike) license, I assume some parts of your work have to be relicensed with ODbL. But that’s a tricky question and depends on the processing steps of the OSM data.
I recommend to document the license flow including all copyright holders and attributions.

3

Hello @samarth.tu-dresden,

that is a tricky question, I am also encountering in my work. I found the FAQ of opendatacommons helpful, where they explain the difference between a license for the database and the content. In your case – which is similar to mine – I think the correct way is to license just your database and highlight the different licenses for the content.

That is what I understand from my search for this topic. Does that match with experience from others?

Best regards
Magdalena

4

Hey @ludwig.huelk,
Thanks for the answer and sharing the slides. Gives a good overview.
I am in discussion with Robbie on more details, and he is planning to write a detailed answer.

Best,
Samarth

5

Hi again,
Thanks for your various feedback on this, really helped a lot in taking the work forward. I have one more question. Since no one in my group works with GIS data, we do not really have an idea about good journals for this kind of work. Would anyone have a recommendation? The ones I looked for example International Journal of Geographical Information Science ask for a significant amount of money for the paper to be under open access.

Best,
Samarth