Unit 5: Intellectual Property and Copyright

Go back to Open Data Management in Agriculture and Nutrition Online Course

Learning objectives

This unit provides an insight on intellectual property rights in relation to copyright and database rights and open licences used for open data. At the end of this unit, you will be able to;

  • understand the basics of property rights in open data landscape
  • understand basics in ownership of data
  • acquire knowledge about standard open licences
  • apply open licenses to datasets

unit2Lesson 5.1: Intellectual property rights

Access to the PDF

The lesson aims to define intellectual property rights (IPRs), explain copyright and database rights in relation to IPRs, highlight differences across various jurisdictions, introduce property rights which apply to data, list considerations of IPRs in databases, and provide an overview on data ownership. After studying this lesson, you should be able to understand different types of intellectual property rights and their relation to data, be aware of differences between different jurisdictions, make informed assumptions regarding copyright and database laws applicable to the data, and understand potential complications in ownership rights in data. 

unit2Lesson 5.2: Licensing open data

Access to the PDF

The lesson aims to provide an overview on licensing and which permissions come with licensing, define what an open licence is, introduce standard open licences in relation to open data, and explain how to apply open licences. After studying this lesson, you should be able to understand the reasons why open data should come with an open licence, identify the implications of the different open licences that may be applicable to the data that you (intend to) use, have an overview of the different open licences that can be used, and apply open licences to the data that you produced.

unit2 Audiovisual Learning Materials

Simplifying Open Data Licences by Ellen Broad (The Open Data Institute)

Webinar recording: Online on Vimeo

Useful links and further readings

Attachment(s)