A primer about licenses Matthieu Bruneaux
2016-11-21
Plan
What we’ll talk about I
Intellectual property
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A quick tour of licenses
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Recommendations for Open Science
Disclaimer I
I am not a lawyer!
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Those notes represent my understanding of licenses, mostly based on searching other people’s material on the Internet
Intellectual property: what is it?
What is intellectual property? I
creations of the mind that are monopolized by owners designated by law
Intellectual property: what is it?
What is intellectual property? I
creations of the mind that are monopolized by owners designated by law
What does intellectual property include? I
copyrights
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patents
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trademarks
Intellectual property: three main components
Intellectual property: three main components Copyrights I
"Appears" automatically when creative work is done
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Does not need to be registered
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Limited in time
Intellectual property: three main components Copyrights I
"Appears" automatically when creative work is done
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Does not need to be registered
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Limited in time
Patents I
To protect inventions (software?)
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Needs to be registered
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Limited in time
Intellectual property: three main components Copyrights I
"Appears" automatically when creative work is done
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Does not need to be registered
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Limited in time
Patents I
To protect inventions (software?)
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Needs to be registered
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Limited in time
Trademarks I
To protect brand names, logos, reputation
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Kind of needs to be registered
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Limited in time
Intellectual property: why do we care (as researchers)?
Intellectual property: why do we care (as researchers)? Things created in research I
Scientific writings (articles, blog posts, . . . )
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Data
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Software
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Other media (photos, videos, audio, . . . )
Intellectual property: why do we care (as researchers)? Things created in research I
Scientific writings (articles, blog posts, . . . )
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Data
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Software
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Other media (photos, videos, audio, . . . )
Why do we need licences? I
To tell what other people can do with our work: I
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To allow people to use our work (no license > strictest copyright retained) To control how our work is used (commercial use? attribution?)
http://choosealicense.com/
Licenses tour: Creative Commons
Licenses tour: Creative Commons creativecommons.org I
Initiated by Lawrence Lessig
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Allows to distribute a work with various levels of flexibility
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"We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software."
Licenses tour: Creative Commons creativecommons.org I
Initiated by Lawrence Lessig
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Allows to distribute a work with various levels of flexibility
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"We recommend against using Creative Commons licenses for software."
Different flavours I
CC0: public domain
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Attribution (CC-BY)
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Share alike (CC-BY-SA)
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No derivatives (CC-BY-ND)
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Non-commercial (CC-BY-NC)
Licenses tour: Creative Commons
Licenses tour: open source software Licenses for code I
Code: include a warranty disclaimer in the license!
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For open source code: https://opensource.org/licenses
Licenses tour: open source software Licenses for code I
Code: include a warranty disclaimer in the license!
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For open source code: https://opensource.org/licenses
Permissive licenses I
Guarantees freedoms to use, modify and redistribute software
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Allows proprietary derivative works
Licenses tour: open source software Licenses for code I
Code: include a warranty disclaimer in the license!
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For open source code: https://opensource.org/licenses
Permissive licenses I
Guarantees freedoms to use, modify and redistribute software
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Allows proprietary derivative works
Copy-left licenses I
Guarantees freedoms to use, modify and redistribute software
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Modified versions of software must use the same license
Licenses tour: permissive licenses
MIT license I
Preserves copyright and license notices
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Commercial use, distribution and modification allowed
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Warranty disclaimer
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One of the most popular open-source software license
BSD license I
Very similar to MIT license
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Includes a non-endorsement clause (contributors names cannot be used to endorse derived work without permission)
Licenses tour: copyleft licenses
GPL3 I
GNU General Public License, originated by Richard Stallman
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Commercial use, distribution and modification allowed
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Warranty disclaimer
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Source disclosed
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Derived works must be released under the same license
Some examples: softwares
Some examples: softwares R I
R is GPL2
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Packages can have different licenses (mostly, if not all, open source licenses)
Some examples: softwares R I
R is GPL2
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Packages can have different licenses (mostly, if not all, open source licenses)
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Under the Python Software Foundation license
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BSD-style, compatible with the GPL, but not copyleft itself.
Python
Some examples: softwares R I
R is GPL2
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Packages can have different licenses (mostly, if not all, open source licenses)
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Under the Python Software Foundation license
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BSD-style, compatible with the GPL, but not copyleft itself.
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Proprietary software
Python
MATLAB
Some examples: data
Data from Duplouy et al. 2013 (Dryad) I
Duplouy A, Ikonen S, Hanski I (2013) Life history of the Glanville fritillary butterfly in fragmented versus continuous landscapes. Ecology and Evolution http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2v3p5
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CC0
Some examples: data
Data from Duplouy et al. 2013 (Dryad) I
Duplouy A, Ikonen S, Hanski I (2013) Life history of the Glanville fritillary butterfly in fragmented versus continuous landscapes. Ecology and Evolution http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2v3p5
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CC0
LTER network (Long Term Ecological Research) I
Most data released to the public under a general data use agreement
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In this agreement: restricted to not-for-profit use
Some examples: data
GenBank I
Unclear: "NCBI places no restrictions on the use or distribution of the GenBank data. However, some submitters may claim patent, copyright, or other intellectual property rights in all or a portion of the data they have submitted. NCBI is not in a position to assess the validity of such claims, and therefore cannot provide comment or unrestricted permission concerning the use, copying, or distribution of the information contained in GenBank."
Recommendations for research
Recommendations for research Who has the intellectual property rights? I
In general, the author of the work
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But can be transferred to Uni (e.g. collaborative project with external funding) or to customer (e.g. commissioned work)
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When in doubt, check!
Recommendations for research Who has the intellectual property rights? I
In general, the author of the work
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But can be transferred to Uni (e.g. collaborative project with external funding) or to customer (e.g. commissioned work)
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When in doubt, check!
In Finland I
JyU: about intellectual property rights
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Academy of Finland: handbook of IPR
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Most empirical datasets are not protected by copyright (not "creations")
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A curated dataset might still be protected by copyright
Different licenses for different objects
Different licenses for different objects Data I
Make it open and easy to reuse: CC0
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Using CC-BY makes it less convenient to use
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Large, expensive datasets: when to release?
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Caution if it contains human data (e.g. medical data)
Different licenses for different objects Data I
Make it open and easy to reuse: CC0
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Using CC-BY makes it less convenient to use
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Large, expensive datasets: when to release?
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Caution if it contains human data (e.g. medical data)
Code I
Avoid Creative Commons
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Good permissive license: MIT license
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If you want copyleft: GPL (but do you want it?)
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Try to use GPL-compatible licenses
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Remember to put a LICENSE file
Different licenses for different objects
Different licenses for different objects
Papers I
You retain the copyright of your manuscript
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Publisher has the copyright to the typesetted form of it
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CC-BY license
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Also for blog posts, . . .
Different licenses for different objects
Papers I
You retain the copyright of your manuscript
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Publisher has the copyright to the typesetted form of it
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CC-BY license
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Also for blog posts, . . .
Other content: pictures, videos, . . . I
CC-BY can be a good option
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CC-BY-NC is you are worried people might use them commercially
Resources
Here be a list of useful links!
