Supported Licenses

opendata@uni-kiel supports various free licenses suited for different types of data. You should choose the license which suits your circumstances best. Be especially aware of the legal requirements and implications of licensing. If you are at all unsure about the proper license to use, consult with an attorney. The support staff of opendata@uni-kiel have a technical background and are not qualified to give legal advice.

Creative Commons

Well-suited for creative works.

• Creative Commons CC0
  
• Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
  
• Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
  

Open Data Commons

Well-suited for data sets and databases.

• Open Data Commons ODC-By 1.0 - Attribution License
  
• Open Data Commons ODbL 1.0 - Open Database License
  
• Open Data Commons PDDL 1.0 - Public Domain Dedication and License
  

Public Domain

Only to be used if you are sure that no copyright exists or that you can legally waive your copyright fully. CC0 or Open Data Commons PDDL are better choices for most cases.

• Public Domain
  

Software Licenses

Well-suited for code.

• Apache License 2.0
  
• GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.0
  
• GNU General Public License (GPL) 3.0
  
• GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) 3.0
  
• MIT License
  
• Mozilla Public License (MPL) 2.0
  

If you would like to use a free license that is not currently listed here, you should contact us. We will add any license that is suitable for FAIR and open data.