Considering its nature, research data (e.g. facts, figures, observations, or recordings) is generally not protected by copyright, since it does not meet the necessary requirement of creativity or intellectual input. However, drUM offers a number of licences ensuring free legal protection that can be selected directly by the researcher during the depositing process.
Researchers can choose from the following licences:
CC BY
Under this licence, the users are free to share (copy and redistribute) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon) your data, even for commercial purposes, as long as they give you the appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if any changes were made to your original data.
More information about this licence can be found here.
CC-0
Under this licence, the users are free to copy, modify, distribute, and otherwise reuse your data, even for commercial purposes, without your permission and without the necessity to attribute you as the author. By selecting this licence, you are essentially waiving all your rights to your data worldwide under copyright law.
More information about this licence can be found here.
MIT
Under this licence, the users are free to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of your data as long as they include a full copyright notice in all versions/copies of the data. This licence is exclusively applicable to software.
More information about this licence can be found here.
GPL
Under this licence, the users are free to use, share, and modify your data as long as they include a full copyright notice, warranty disclaimer, intact GPL notices, and a copy of the GPL in all versions/copies of the data. Additionally, if they make any changes to your data, they have to include an explanation of all such changes. This licence is exclusively applicable to software.
More information about this licence can be found here.
GPL-2.0
Under this licence, the users are free to use, share, and modify your data as long as they include a full copyright notice, warranty disclaimer, intact GPL notices, and a copy of the GPL in all versions/copies of the data. Additionally, if they make any changes to your data, they have to include an explanation of all such changes. This licence is exclusively applicable to software.
GPL-2.0 is a stricter version of the original GPL licence, featuring additional requirements pertaining to modification of the original data.
More information about this licence can be found here.
GPL-3.0
Under this licence, the users are free to use, share, and modify your data as long as they include a full copyright notice, warranty disclaimer, intact GPL notices, and a copy of the GPL in all versions/copies of the data. Additionally, if they make any changes to your data, they have to include an explanation of all such changes. This licence is exclusively applicable to software.
GPL-3.0 is the strictest version of the GPL licences, featuring additional requirements pertaining to modification of the original data as well as clarifying matters such as patent indemnity, internalisation, and remedies for licence infringement.
More information about this licence can be found here.
Apache-2.0
Under this licence, the users are free to distribute and modify your data, as long as they include a copy of the licence in all versions/copies of the data. This licence is exclusively applicable to software.
More information about this licence can be found here.
CC BY 4.0
Under this licence, the users are free to share (copy and redistribute) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon) your data, even for commercial purposes, as long as they give you the appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if any changes were made to your original data. CC BY 4.0 is the latest version of the CC BY licence that includes a slight change to attribution requirements, a 30-day window to correct licence violations and is easier to understand and apply
More information about this licence can be found here.
By default, the metadata in drUM is licensed under the CC-BY licence.
Certain licences, such as GPL, GPL-2.0, GPL-3.0, and Apache-2.0, are more suitable for specific types of data (e.g. software), while others are more universal. However, it is ultimately the researcher’s prerogative to select the licence during the depositing process.