The United Kingdom on Friday updated its Open Government Licence, adding the requirement of an attribution statement. This specification should make it clear to re-users that they should include statements from information providers, even when combining information from different sources.
The Open Government Licence (OGL) is recommended as the default licence for public sector information in the UK.
The licence is part of the UK Government Licensing Framework. This was launched in 2010 to organise best practices and to standardise the licensing principles for government information. By making government-held information public, the government aims to increase openness and allow others to use the information.
“The OGL permits the use and re-use of a wide range of government and other public sector information”, the National Archives said in a statement published Friday. “This supports the government's policy on transparency and open data.”
Use and re-use
The basic terms and conditions of the Open Government Licence version 3.0 remain the same as the previous version, the National Archives write. The licence continues to:
- permit use and re-use of information in any format for both commercial and non-commercial purposes without charge;
- require re-users to publish an acknowledgement of the source of the information;
- exclude personal information from the licence;
- be compatible with other licensing models, such as Creative Commons, and be Open Definition conformant.
The Open Government Licence version is a perpetual licence. This means that those already using information made available under OGL version 1.0 or OGL version 2.0 will be able to continue to do so, the National Archives explain. The move to OGL version 3.0 applies to new users of information, once the relevant website and publishing copyright notices have been updated.
More information:
Announcement by the National Archives
Open Government Licence for public sector information