Unclear, ambiguous, and/or contradictory licensing by public bodies

Open data
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IIASA scenarios databases

Two scenarios databases maintained by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) offer non‑open licensing and provide problematic statements claiming 96/9/EC database protection. The databases are:

  • IAMC (ongoing). IAMC 1.5°C Scenario Explorer hosted by IIASA. Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium (IAMC). Part of the IPCC SR15 report. IAMC is Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium.

  • IIASA (ongoing). NGFS Scenario Explorer. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Laxenburg, Austria. Open access. NGFS is Network for Greening the Financial System.

Both sites apply a “Public License [that] is adapted from the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License”. And both sites claim too that “The scenario ensemble is protected by EU Sui generis database rights”.

That database claim is almost certainly incorrect in light of a 2021 European court ruling on such matters (CJEU 2021). Indeed, the changes to the CC‑BY‑4.0 license text appear designed to support any extant 96/9/EC database rights. As such protection is highly unlikely to apply, the easiest solution would be for IIASA to remove the remark claiming database protection and revert to unmodified CC‑BY‑4.0 license notices. Then both the contents and the database itself would become genuinely open and reusable and the content would be legally compatible with other material under CC‑BY‑4.0 licensing (or alternatively with legal provisions that are inbound compatible).