Difference between revisions of "CC0 use for data"

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[[CC0]] (read “CC Zero”) is a universal waiver that may be used by anyone wishing to permanently surrender the copyright and database rights they may have in a work, thereby placing it as nearly as possible into the public domain. CC0 is '''not''' a license, but a legal tool that improves on the “dedication” function of our existing, [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ U.S.-centric public domain dedication and certification]. CC0 is universal in form and may be used throughout the world for any kind of content without adaptation to account for laws in different jurisdictions. And like our licenses, CC0 has the benefit of being expressed in three ways – legal code, a human readable deed, and machine-readable code that allows works distributed under CC0 to be easily found.
 
[[CC0]] (read “CC Zero”) is a universal waiver that may be used by anyone wishing to permanently surrender the copyright and database rights they may have in a work, thereby placing it as nearly as possible into the public domain. CC0 is '''not''' a license, but a legal tool that improves on the “dedication” function of our existing, [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ U.S.-centric public domain dedication and certification]. CC0 is universal in form and may be used throughout the world for any kind of content without adaptation to account for laws in different jurisdictions. And like our licenses, CC0 has the benefit of being expressed in three ways – legal code, a human readable deed, and machine-readable code that allows works distributed under CC0 to be easily found.
  
CC0 is [http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-data-protocol/ particularly relevant to data]. Databases may contain facts that, in and of themselves, are not protected by copyright law. The copyright laws of some jurisdictions cover database design and structure, however, and some jurisdictions like the European Union have enacted special laws to protect databases when they are not protected under applicable copyright law. CC0 is intended to cover all copyright and database laws, so that however database rights are protected (under copyright or otherwise), those rights are all waived. An opinion piece in <em>Nature</em> on [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7261/full/461171a.html Post-publication sharing of data and tools]explicitly recommends open sharing and the use of CC0 to put data in the public domain:
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CC0 is [http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-data-protocol/ particularly relevant to data]. Databases may contain facts that, in and of themselves, are not protected by copyright law. The copyright laws of some jurisdictions cover database design and structure, however, and some jurisdictions like the European Union have enacted special laws to protect databases when they are not protected under applicable copyright law. CC0 is intended to cover all copyright and database laws, so that however database rights are protected (under copyright or otherwise), those rights are all waived. An opinion piece in <em>Nature</em> on "[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7261/full/461171a.html Post-publication sharing of data and tools]" explicitly recommends open sharing and the use of CC0 to put data in the public domain:
  
 
<blockquote>"Although it is usual practice for major public databases to make data freely available to access and use, any restrictions on use should be strongly resisted and we endorse explicit encouragement of open sharing, for example under the newly available CC0 public domain waiver of Creative Commons."</blockquote>
 
<blockquote>"Although it is usual practice for major public databases to make data freely available to access and use, any restrictions on use should be strongly resisted and we endorse explicit encouragement of open sharing, for example under the newly available CC0 public domain waiver of Creative Commons."</blockquote>
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===[[Case_Studies/CERN|CERN Library]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/CERN|CERN Library]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/CERN|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/CERN|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
http://library.web.cern.ch/library/Library/announcement.html
 
http://library.web.cern.ch/library/Library/announcement.html
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Cologne-based_Libraries|Cologne-based Libraries]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Cologne-based_Libraries|Cologne-based Libraries]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Cologne-based_Libraries|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Cologne-based_Libraries|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
All [http://www.hbz-nrw.de/projekte/linked_open_data bibliographic data from Cologne-based libraries] are available to the public with no known copyright restrictions. Cologne-based libraries who waived their copyrights using the CC0 public domain waiver include the University and Public Library of Cologne (USB), the Library of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, the University Library of the University of Applied Science of Cologne, and the LBZ. The data is currently linked from the [http://www.hbz-nrw.de/projekte/linked_open_data North Rhine-Westphalian Library Service Center (hbz)]. For more info, see the [http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/21344 blog post].
 
All [http://www.hbz-nrw.de/projekte/linked_open_data bibliographic data from Cologne-based libraries] are available to the public with no known copyright restrictions. Cologne-based libraries who waived their copyrights using the CC0 public domain waiver include the University and Public Library of Cologne (USB), the Library of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, the University Library of the University of Applied Science of Cologne, and the LBZ. The data is currently linked from the [http://www.hbz-nrw.de/projekte/linked_open_data North Rhine-Westphalian Library Service Center (hbz)]. For more info, see the [http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/21344 blog post].
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Digg|Digg]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Digg|Digg]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Digg|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Digg|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
All content on [http://digg.com Digg], a social news website, is defaulted under CC0, which means that Digg has waived all copyright restrictions to its content. Content includes readers' comments, story titles, story descriptions, and all of the other user-contributed content on the Digg site. For more info, see the [http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/14752 blog post].
 
All content on [http://digg.com Digg], a social news website, is defaulted under CC0, which means that Digg has waived all copyright restrictions to its content. Content includes readers' comments, story titles, story descriptions, and all of the other user-contributed content on the Digg site. For more info, see the [http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/14752 blog post].
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Dryad|Dryad]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Dryad|Dryad]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Dryad|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Dryad|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
Dryad is an online repository for data contained in academic papers and other publications in the sciences. The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and the University of North Carolina Metadata Research Center, in partnership with various [http://datadryad.org/partners journals and societies], comprise the development of Dryad's data set, all of which is waived under the CC0 public domain waiver.
 
Dryad is an online repository for data contained in academic papers and other publications in the sciences. The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and the University of North Carolina Metadata Research Center, in partnership with various [http://datadryad.org/partners journals and societies], comprise the development of Dryad's data set, all of which is waived under the CC0 public domain waiver.
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Flickr_Case_Study|Flickr]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Flickr_Case_Study|Flickr]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Flickr_Case_Study|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Flickr_Case_Study|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
[http://flickr.com Flickr] published its [http://code.flickr.com/blog/2009/05/21/flickr-shapefiles-public-dataset-10/ shapefile dataset] online, waiving all copyright restrictions via the CC0 public domain waiver. A shapefile is a file containing shapes mathematically generated by thousands of Flickr geotagged photos of particular neighborhoods, countries, and continents. Shapefile data has been used to reverse-engineer maps with user generated longitude and latitude coordinates that are then demarcated by Where-On-Earth IDs, "[http://code.flickr.com/blog/2008/10/30/the-shape-of-alpha/ unique numeric identifiers that correspond to the hierarchy of places where a photo was taken: the neighbourhood, the town, the county, and so on up to the continent]." For more information, see the [http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/14678 blog post].
 
[http://flickr.com Flickr] published its [http://code.flickr.com/blog/2009/05/21/flickr-shapefiles-public-dataset-10/ shapefile dataset] online, waiving all copyright restrictions via the CC0 public domain waiver. A shapefile is a file containing shapes mathematically generated by thousands of Flickr geotagged photos of particular neighborhoods, countries, and continents. Shapefile data has been used to reverse-engineer maps with user generated longitude and latitude coordinates that are then demarcated by Where-On-Earth IDs, "[http://code.flickr.com/blog/2008/10/30/the-shape-of-alpha/ unique numeric identifiers that correspond to the hierarchy of places where a photo was taken: the neighbourhood, the town, the county, and so on up to the continent]." For more information, see the [http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/14678 blog post].
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Wikipedia, German|German Wikipedia]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Wikipedia, German|German Wikipedia]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Wikipedia, German|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Wikipedia, German|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:PND/BEACON
 
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:PND/BEACON
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/GlaxoSmithKline|GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/GlaxoSmithKline|GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/GlaxoSmithKline|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/GlaxoSmithKline|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
One of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world, [http://www.ebi.ac.uk/chemblntd/#tcams_dataset GlaxoSmithKline] has waived all copyright restrictions to its malarial data set via CC0, which includes more than 13,500 compounds known to be active against malaria.
 
One of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world, [http://www.ebi.ac.uk/chemblntd/#tcams_dataset GlaxoSmithKline] has waived all copyright restrictions to its malarial data set via CC0, which includes more than 13,500 compounds known to be active against malaria.
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/MichiganView|MichiganView]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/MichiganView|MichiganView]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/MichiganView|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/MichiganView|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
Using CC0, [http://wiki.americaview.org/display/miview/Home MichiganView] has waived all copyright restrictions to its 93+ Gigabytes of Landsat 5 and 7, and NAIP imagery data. The MichiganView consortium makes available aerial photography and satellite imagery of Michigan to the public for free over the Web. As part of the AmericaView consortium, MichiganView supports access and use of these imagery collections through education, workforce development, and research. For more info, see the [http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2010/01/29/michiganview-releases-remote-sensing-data-under-cc0-waiver/ blog post].
 
Using CC0, [http://wiki.americaview.org/display/miview/Home MichiganView] has waived all copyright restrictions to its 93+ Gigabytes of Landsat 5 and 7, and NAIP imagery data. The MichiganView consortium makes available aerial photography and satellite imagery of Michigan to the public for free over the Web. As part of the AmericaView consortium, MichiganView supports access and use of these imagery collections through education, workforce development, and research. For more info, see the [http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2010/01/29/michiganview-releases-remote-sensing-data-under-cc0-waiver/ blog post].
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Netherlands_Government|Netherlands Government]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Netherlands_Government|Netherlands Government]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Netherlands_Government|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Netherlands_Government|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
The [http://www.rijksoverheid.nl Netherlands government] launched [http://www.rijksoverheid.nl www.rijksoverheid.nl], a single website for all Dutch ministries, in March 2010. The default copyright policy for site content is that there is no copyright; using the CC0 public domain waiver, the government waived all copyright restrictions for the site. The purpose of [http://www.rijksoverheid.nl www.rijksoverheid.nl] is to establish one central location or portal through which all government organizations and ministries can be accessed by the public. The migration process is currently underway. For more info, see the [http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/21473 blog post].
 
The [http://www.rijksoverheid.nl Netherlands government] launched [http://www.rijksoverheid.nl www.rijksoverheid.nl], a single website for all Dutch ministries, in March 2010. The default copyright policy for site content is that there is no copyright; using the CC0 public domain waiver, the government waived all copyright restrictions for the site. The purpose of [http://www.rijksoverheid.nl www.rijksoverheid.nl] is to establish one central location or portal through which all government organizations and ministries can be accessed by the public. The migration process is currently underway. For more info, see the [http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/21473 blog post].
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Open Library|Open Library]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Open Library|Open Library]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Open Library|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Open Library|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
An initiative of the Internet Archive, the Open Library is an online catalog that aims to provide a web page for every book ever published. Drawing from existing library catalogs around the world and user contributions, the Open Library has 20 million records to date and provides access to 1.7 million scanned books. All rights to Open Library data are waived via [http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ CC0].
 
An initiative of the Internet Archive, the Open Library is an online catalog that aims to provide a web page for every book ever published. Drawing from existing library catalogs around the world and user contributions, the Open Library has 20 million records to date and provides access to 1.7 million scanned books. All rights to Open Library data are waived via [http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ CC0].
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/OpenEI|OpenEI]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/OpenEI|OpenEI]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/OpenEI|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/OpenEI|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
An initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy, OpenEI is a linked open data platform that releases all contributions to the public under the CC0 public domain waiver. It is a community effort devoted to assembling the world's most comprehensive collection of energy information--including datasets, tools, and models.
 
An initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy, OpenEI is a linked open data platform that releases all contributions to the public under the CC0 public domain waiver. It is a community effort devoted to assembling the world's most comprehensive collection of energy information--including datasets, tools, and models.
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/OpenJurist|OpenJurist.org]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/OpenJurist|OpenJurist.org]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/OpenJurist|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/OpenJurist|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
Using CC0, [http://openjurist.org/terms-of-use OpenJurist], a resource for case law in the U.S., has made available all Supreme Court and Federal Appellate Court Decisions from the 1700s to the current day.
 
Using CC0, [http://openjurist.org/terms-of-use OpenJurist], a resource for case law in the U.S., has made available all Supreme Court and Federal Appellate Court Decisions from the 1700s to the current day.
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Personal_Genome_Project|Personal Genome Project]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Personal_Genome_Project|Personal Genome Project]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Personal_Genome_Project|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Personal_Genome_Project|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
[http://www.personalgenomes.org/ The Personal Genome Project], a pioneer in the emerging field of personal genomics technology, released a large data set containing genomic sequences for ten individuals using CC0, with future planned releases also to be under CC0.
 
[http://www.personalgenomes.org/ The Personal Genome Project], a pioneer in the emerging field of personal genomics technology, released a large data set containing genomic sequences for ten individuals using CC0, with future planned releases also to be under CC0.
 
</div>
 
</div>
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===[[Case_Studies/Polar_Information_Commons|Polar Information Commons]]===  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Polar_Information_Commons|Polar Information Commons]]===  
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Polar_Information_Commons|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Polar_Information_Commons|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
The [http://www.polarcommons.org/ Polar Information Commons], a data sharing project growing out of the most recent International Polar Year, has enabled researchers to release their polar data into the public domain using the CC0 public domain waiver. For those sharing their data, the Polar Information Commons has outlined [http://www.polarcommons.org/ethics-and-norms-of-data-sharing.php Ethics and Norms of Data Sharing].
 
The [http://www.polarcommons.org/ Polar Information Commons], a data sharing project growing out of the most recent International Polar Year, has enabled researchers to release their polar data into the public domain using the CC0 public domain waiver. For those sharing their data, the Polar Information Commons has outlined [http://www.polarcommons.org/ethics-and-norms-of-data-sharing.php Ethics and Norms of Data Sharing].
 
</div>
 
</div>
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===[[Case_Studies/Proteome_Commons|Proteome Commons Tranche Network]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Proteome_Commons|Proteome Commons Tranche Network]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Proteome_Commons|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Proteome_Commons|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
[https://proteomecommons.org/tranche/ Proteome Commons Tranche Network], a public proteomics database for annotations and other information that uses Tranche, a free and open source (Apache 2.0) file storage and dissemination software, has enabled the CC0 waiver as the default uploading option for users.
 
[https://proteomecommons.org/tranche/ Proteome Commons Tranche Network], a public proteomics database for annotations and other information that uses Tranche, a free and open source (Apache 2.0) file storage and dissemination software, has enabled the CC0 waiver as the default uploading option for users.
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Public.Resource.Org|Public.resource.org]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Public.Resource.Org|Public.resource.org]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Public.Resource.Org|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Public.Resource.Org|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
[http://public.resource.org/uscourts.gov/index.html 1.8 million pages of U.S. Courts of Appeals decisions] (since 1950 onwards) were delivered back into the public domain by [http://public.resource.org/ public.resource.org], who officially waived all copyright restrictions to the case law using the CC0 public domain waiver.
 
[http://public.resource.org/uscourts.gov/index.html 1.8 million pages of U.S. Courts of Appeals decisions] (since 1950 onwards) were delivered back into the public domain by [http://public.resource.org/ public.resource.org], who officially waived all copyright restrictions to the case law using the CC0 public domain waiver.
 
</div>
 
</div>
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===[[Case_Studies/Sage_Bionetworks_-_Sage_Commons|Sage Bionetworks - Sage Commons]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Sage_Bionetworks_-_Sage_Commons|Sage Bionetworks - Sage Commons]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Sage_Bionetworks_-_Sage_Commons|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Sage_Bionetworks_-_Sage_Commons|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
[http://sagebase.org/commons/ Sage Commons] is a public resource and information platform for scientists, research foundations, and research institutions to share and develop human disease and biological research. Sage Commons will enable the CC0 public domain waiver as an option for waiving copyright restrictions to data hosted in the network. The [http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/sagecite/ SageCite project], driven by UKOLN, the University of Manchester, and the British Library, and funded by JISC, is set to develop and test an entire framework for citation norms, not attribution, using bioinformatics as a test case.
 
[http://sagebase.org/commons/ Sage Commons] is a public resource and information platform for scientists, research foundations, and research institutions to share and develop human disease and biological research. Sage Commons will enable the CC0 public domain waiver as an option for waiving copyright restrictions to data hosted in the network. The [http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/sagecite/ SageCite project], driven by UKOLN, the University of Manchester, and the British Library, and funded by JISC, is set to develop and test an entire framework for citation norms, not attribution, using bioinformatics as a test case.
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/Talis_Connected_Commons|Talis Connected Commons]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/Talis_Connected_Commons|Talis Connected Commons]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Talis_Connected_Commons|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/Talis_Connected_Commons|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
The [http://www.talis.com/platform/cc/ Talis Connected Commons] is a project by Talis that works to encourage the growth of public domain data. Talis offers free data hosting on its platform as long as the data is made available under either the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication or the CC0 public domain waiver.
 
The [http://www.talis.com/platform/cc/ Talis Connected Commons] is a project by Talis that works to encourage the growth of public domain data. Talis offers free data hosting on its platform as long as the data is made available under either the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication or the CC0 public domain waiver.
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/University_of_Michigan_Library|University of Michigan Library]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/University_of_Michigan_Library|University of Michigan Library]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/University of Michigan Library|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/University of Michigan Library|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
The University of Michigan Library has waived all copyrights to its [http://www.lib.umich.edu/open-access-bibliographic-records Open Access bibliographic records] via CC0. As of November 17, 2010, the Library released 684,597 bibliographic records into the public domain. The Library also defaults all of its site content under the most open CC license - CC BY.
 
The University of Michigan Library has waived all copyrights to its [http://www.lib.umich.edu/open-access-bibliographic-records Open Access bibliographic records] via CC0. As of November 17, 2010, the Library released 684,597 bibliographic records into the public domain. The Library also defaults all of its site content under the most open CC license - CC BY.
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
===[[Case_Studies/WisconsinView|WisconsinView]]===
 
===[[Case_Studies/WisconsinView|WisconsinView]]===
<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/WisconsinView|?Image Header}}
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<div class="smimg">{{#show: Case_Studies/WisconsinView|?Image Header|link=none}}
 
Using CC0, [http://www.wisconsinview.org/ WisconsinView] has waived all copyright restrictions to its 6+ Terabytes of imagery data. The WisconsinView consortium makes available aerial photography and satellite imagery of Wisconsin to the public for free over the Web. As part of the AmericaView consortium, WisconsinView supports access and use of these imagery collections through education, workforce development, and research. For more info, see the [http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2009/07/01/wisconsinview-public-domain/ blog post].
 
Using CC0, [http://www.wisconsinview.org/ WisconsinView] has waived all copyright restrictions to its 6+ Terabytes of imagery data. The WisconsinView consortium makes available aerial photography and satellite imagery of Wisconsin to the public for free over the Web. As part of the AmericaView consortium, WisconsinView supports access and use of these imagery collections through education, workforce development, and research. For more info, see the [http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2009/07/01/wisconsinview-public-domain/ blog post].
 
</div>
 
</div>
  
 
[[Category:CC0]]
 
[[Category:CC0]]

Revision as of 22:09, 10 December 2010

Cc0 88x31.png

CC0 (read “CC Zero”) is a universal waiver that may be used by anyone wishing to permanently surrender the copyright and database rights they may have in a work, thereby placing it as nearly as possible into the public domain. CC0 is not a license, but a legal tool that improves on the “dedication” function of our existing, U.S.-centric public domain dedication and certification. CC0 is universal in form and may be used throughout the world for any kind of content without adaptation to account for laws in different jurisdictions. And like our licenses, CC0 has the benefit of being expressed in three ways – legal code, a human readable deed, and machine-readable code that allows works distributed under CC0 to be easily found.

CC0 is particularly relevant to data. Databases may contain facts that, in and of themselves, are not protected by copyright law. The copyright laws of some jurisdictions cover database design and structure, however, and some jurisdictions like the European Union have enacted special laws to protect databases when they are not protected under applicable copyright law. CC0 is intended to cover all copyright and database laws, so that however database rights are protected (under copyright or otherwise), those rights are all waived. An opinion piece in Nature on "Post-publication sharing of data and tools" explicitly recommends open sharing and the use of CC0 to put data in the public domain:

"Although it is usual practice for major public databases to make data freely available to access and use, any restrictions on use should be strongly resisted and we endorse explicit encouragement of open sharing, for example under the newly available CC0 public domain waiver of Creative Commons."

CC0 use cases

The British Library

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The British Library released a large set of their bibliographic data into the public domain via the CC0 public domain waiver. This set is from the British National Bibliography, which contains data on publishing activity from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland since 1950, and comprises 20% of the entire British Library catalog. The dataset currently consists of 3 million individual records.

CERN Library

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http://library.web.cern.ch/library/Library/announcement.html

Cologne-based Libraries

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All bibliographic data from Cologne-based libraries are available to the public with no known copyright restrictions. Cologne-based libraries who waived their copyrights using the CC0 public domain waiver include the University and Public Library of Cologne (USB), the Library of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, the University Library of the University of Applied Science of Cologne, and the LBZ. The data is currently linked from the North Rhine-Westphalian Library Service Center (hbz). For more info, see the blog post.

Digg

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All content on Digg, a social news website, is defaulted under CC0, which means that Digg has waived all copyright restrictions to its content. Content includes readers' comments, story titles, story descriptions, and all of the other user-contributed content on the Digg site. For more info, see the blog post.

Dryad

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Dryad is an online repository for data contained in academic papers and other publications in the sciences. The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center and the University of North Carolina Metadata Research Center, in partnership with various journals and societies, comprise the development of Dryad's data set, all of which is waived under the CC0 public domain waiver.

Flickr

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Flickr published its shapefile dataset online, waiving all copyright restrictions via the CC0 public domain waiver. A shapefile is a file containing shapes mathematically generated by thousands of Flickr geotagged photos of particular neighborhoods, countries, and continents. Shapefile data has been used to reverse-engineer maps with user generated longitude and latitude coordinates that are then demarcated by Where-On-Earth IDs, "unique numeric identifiers that correspond to the hierarchy of places where a photo was taken: the neighbourhood, the town, the county, and so on up to the continent." For more information, see the blog post.

German Wikipedia

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http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:PND/BEACON

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

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One of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world, GlaxoSmithKline has waived all copyright restrictions to its malarial data set via CC0, which includes more than 13,500 compounds known to be active against malaria.

MichiganView

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Using CC0, MichiganView has waived all copyright restrictions to its 93+ Gigabytes of Landsat 5 and 7, and NAIP imagery data. The MichiganView consortium makes available aerial photography and satellite imagery of Michigan to the public for free over the Web. As part of the AmericaView consortium, MichiganView supports access and use of these imagery collections through education, workforce development, and research. For more info, see the blog post.

Netherlands Government

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The Netherlands government launched www.rijksoverheid.nl, a single website for all Dutch ministries, in March 2010. The default copyright policy for site content is that there is no copyright; using the CC0 public domain waiver, the government waived all copyright restrictions for the site. The purpose of www.rijksoverheid.nl is to establish one central location or portal through which all government organizations and ministries can be accessed by the public. The migration process is currently underway. For more info, see the blog post.

Open Library

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An initiative of the Internet Archive, the Open Library is an online catalog that aims to provide a web page for every book ever published. Drawing from existing library catalogs around the world and user contributions, the Open Library has 20 million records to date and provides access to 1.7 million scanned books. All rights to Open Library data are waived via CC0.

OpenEI

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An initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy, OpenEI is a linked open data platform that releases all contributions to the public under the CC0 public domain waiver. It is a community effort devoted to assembling the world's most comprehensive collection of energy information--including datasets, tools, and models.

OpenJurist.org

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Using CC0, OpenJurist, a resource for case law in the U.S., has made available all Supreme Court and Federal Appellate Court Decisions from the 1700s to the current day.

Personal Genome Project

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The Personal Genome Project, a pioneer in the emerging field of personal genomics technology, released a large data set containing genomic sequences for ten individuals using CC0, with future planned releases also to be under CC0.


Polar Information Commons

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The Polar Information Commons, a data sharing project growing out of the most recent International Polar Year, has enabled researchers to release their polar data into the public domain using the CC0 public domain waiver. For those sharing their data, the Polar Information Commons has outlined Ethics and Norms of Data Sharing.


Proteome Commons Tranche Network

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Proteome Commons Tranche Network, a public proteomics database for annotations and other information that uses Tranche, a free and open source (Apache 2.0) file storage and dissemination software, has enabled the CC0 waiver as the default uploading option for users.

Public.resource.org

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1.8 million pages of U.S. Courts of Appeals decisions (since 1950 onwards) were delivered back into the public domain by public.resource.org, who officially waived all copyright restrictions to the case law using the CC0 public domain waiver.


Sage Bionetworks - Sage Commons

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Sage Commons is a public resource and information platform for scientists, research foundations, and research institutions to share and develop human disease and biological research. Sage Commons will enable the CC0 public domain waiver as an option for waiving copyright restrictions to data hosted in the network. The SageCite project, driven by UKOLN, the University of Manchester, and the British Library, and funded by JISC, is set to develop and test an entire framework for citation norms, not attribution, using bioinformatics as a test case.

Talis Connected Commons

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The Talis Connected Commons is a project by Talis that works to encourage the growth of public domain data. Talis offers free data hosting on its platform as long as the data is made available under either the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication or the CC0 public domain waiver.

University of Michigan Library

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The University of Michigan Library has waived all copyrights to its Open Access bibliographic records via CC0. As of November 17, 2010, the Library released 684,597 bibliographic records into the public domain. The Library also defaults all of its site content under the most open CC license - CC BY.

WisconsinView

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Using CC0, WisconsinView has waived all copyright restrictions to its 6+ Terabytes of imagery data. The WisconsinView consortium makes available aerial photography and satellite imagery of Wisconsin to the public for free over the Web. As part of the AmericaView consortium, WisconsinView supports access and use of these imagery collections through education, workforce development, and research. For more info, see the blog post.