The RDR has a default license of a CC0 waiver. The CC0 waiver licenses reduce many legal and technical obstacles to data reuse that can arise from applying other licenses (such as attribution stacking). Since in many jurisdictions data may not be copyrightable, the CC0 waiver also removes legal questions related to the copyright status of datasets. While the CC0 waiver does not require attribution, growing community and data citation norms as well as the Acceptable Use Policy create an expectation that users will properly cite data in the same manner they would any other form of scholarly communication.
However, you have the option to choose from other licenses that communicate what others may do with your data, ranging from a broad license to do whatever they like, or a narrow one that restricts non-commercial use and prevents distribution of derivative works. Please see more information below on the licenses available within the RDR:
If you would like to commercialize your data in the future, then you should select a Non-Commercial (NC) Creative Commons license. For other questions regarding patents or commercialization, please contact the Office of Translation and Commercialization.
If you need help selecting a license, please contact us at datamanagement@duke.edu, or contact Kate Dickson (katherine.dickson@duke.edu), Copyright Librarian.
The following Creative Commons licenses are listed from least restrictive to most restrictive.
CC0-1.0 Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal: With this license, you waive all rights and place your work in the public domain. This is the recommended and default license for RDR submissions.
CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution v4.0 International: This license allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as the original work is properly attributed to you.
CC-BY-SA-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike v4.0 International: This license allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as the original work is properly attributed to you and they license the derivatives under the identical terms.
CC-BY-ND-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives v4.0 International: This license allows others to redistribute your work for commercial or non-commercial purposes, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole and properly attributed to you.
CC-BY-NC-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial v4.0 International: This license allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as the original work is properly attributed to you. Derivative works do not have to be licensed on the same terms as the original.
CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike v4.0 International: This license allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as the original work is properly attributed to you and the derivative works are licensed on the same terms as the original.
CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives v4.0 International: This license allows others to share your work with others as long as they credit you. Your work can not be changed in any way or used commercially. This is the most restrictive Creative Commons license.
Open Data Commons (ODC) licenses This license was created specifically for data and databases. To understand how these licenses differ from other open licenses, see the ODC license FAQ.
Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication Licence (PDDL): With this license, you waive all rights and place your work in the public domain. It is comparable to the CC-0 license.
Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By): This license allows others to distribute, share, modify, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as the original work is properly attributed to you. It is comparable to the CC-BY license.
Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL): This license allows others to distribute, share, modify, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as the original work is properly attributed to you and the derivative work is licensed on the same terms as the original. It is comparable to the CC-BY-SA license.
You may choose from the following open-source software licenses. If you need help choosing a software license, try the Choose a License tool.