Designing a licensing strategy for sharing and re-use of geospatial data in the academic sector

Abstract

The GRADE Project (http://edina.ed.ac.uk/projects/grade) is one of a cluster of projects in the Digital Repositories Programme funded by the Joint Information Services Committee (www.jisc.ac.uk) of HEFCE investigating the interactions between data and institutional (publications) repositories, support for scientific lifecycle, storage and access requirements. The JISC is bringing together a programme of work relating to digital repositories. Its aim is to bring together people and practices from across various domains (research, learning, information services, institutional policy, management and administration, records management, and so on) to ensure the maximum degree of coordination in the development of digital repositories, in terms of their technical and social (including business) aspects. Within this context, GRADE is investigating the technical and cultural issues around the reuse of geospatial data within the JISC IE in the context of media –centric, informal and institutional repositories. GRADE Work Package 3 aims to develop a clear understanding of digital rights issues for created geospatial data respecting, where applicable, the licensing conditions of any source geospatial data and to develop a conceptual framework for resolving those described rights management issues raised in relation to repositories. Geospatial material created in the education sector can be highly complex, incorporating data created elsewhere either as found, or customised to fit the particular need of the academic or lecturer. The downstream rights can become very complex, as it is necessary to ensure that permissions have been gained to reuse or repurpose the data, and it is usually essential that correct attribution is made. There are currently concerns and confusion over the assertion of IPR and copyright of created geospatial data particularly where third party data are included. This report considers a licensing strategy for the sharing and re-use of geospatial data within the UK research and education sector.