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Tranche and the Open Access Database Protocol: Legal Terminology and License Options
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The Science Commons has formally recommended how resources such as Tranche can mark data as either open-access or restricted. Please see the main documentation page for more information. This page contains details regarding the terminiology used by the Science Commons and the licensing options we've added to Tranche.
- Science Commons terminology used in Tranche
- Three options for licensing data that is uploaded to Tranche
- Three assertions required prior to uploading data
Science Commons terminology used in Tranche
Please read this summary of critical Science Commons terminology and the subsequent summary of the three licensing options we offer when uploading data to Tranche. The Science Commons RFC uses these terms to symbolize open data access.
- Science Commons Database Protocol
This is the formal process by which a tool (Tranche is such a tool) can host and share data in a truly open access fashion. Even if select data sets must be kept private or have licensing restrictions applied to them.
- Open Access Data Mark
Any system certified by the Science Commons to be compliant with the above protocol can issue a "Open Access Data Mark" on data sets and the meta-data required to find such data sets. Tranche is a system that is certified to apply the Open Access Data Mark to data sets going on-line. This does not mean that your private data in Tranche will be open access for everyone to look at; however, it does mean that you agree to let Tranche inform others that your private data set exists.
Three options for licensing data that is uploaded to Tranche
When uploading data to the ProteomeCommons.org Tranche network you will now see that you have three options when uploading data. These options give you complete control over how you let others actually use your data, including the ability for you to attach whatever licensing rights that you please. Here are the options, explained in plain English.
- Public Now
By selecting "Public Now" you agree to make your entire data set publicly accessible immediately. Both the raw data and the meta-data Tranche hosts will be given to anyone that wants it. If the user wants to use your data, nothing is stopping them. This is true open access data sharing.
- Public Later (peer-review manuscript data)
By selecting "Public Later" you agree that eventually you will make the data set publicly accessible. For now it will be password encrypted. Users will be able to publicly find the data on Tranche, but users will not be able to access it unless you share with them the passphrase. The data is strongly encrypted according to NIST recommended standards. Ideally, this option is for data that accompanies peer-review manuscripts. In this situation users often want to share data with reviewers, and if the manuscript is accepted, publish the data as a publicly accessible data set. If you choose this option, simply share the passphrase with whoever should be able to access the data set. When the time comes to make the data public access, register the passphrase with ProteomeCommons.org.
- Custom License
This option symbolizes that the data set is subject to specific licensing terms according to the owner. Users must consult the licensing information included in the data set or contact the author for permission to use the data set. It is entirely up to you to specify the particular licensing terms applied to your data, and it is your responsibility to ensure that these terms are legally valid. The Tranche project and ProteomeCommons.org does not guarantee that licensing terms will be enforced, but we will clearly label that the data set has special licensing requirements.
It is strongly recommended that you do not use this option unless you have good reason to do so. Also note, regardless of licensing restrictions to your actual data you must agree to allow the Tranche-generated meta-data to be publicly accessible. In other words, you must grant public access to the Tranche-generated information required to find, host, and share your data set. Please see our FAQ on what is included in Tranche meta-data if you are worried about what exactly is included in the meta-data.
Three assertions required prior to uploading data
You will always have to agree to three assertions before you can upload data to Tranche. Each assertion is intended to be a simple way to conform to the four key requirements outlined by the Science Commons Database Protocol. These three assertions are similar for the three licensing options; however, they differ in one key way. Every licensing option mandates that you allow public access to the Tranche-generated meta-data (i.e. our internal plumbing data), but you have the option to specify if the assertions also apply to the files in your data set. Here are the assertions with citations directly to the Science Commons RFC sections.
- "I waive all intellectual property rights necessary for data extraction and re-use"
Agreeing to this statement satisfies section 4.1 of the Science Commons RFC, which is quoted below.
The conflict between simplicity and legal certainty can be best resolved by a twofold measure: 1) a reconstruction of the public domain and 2) the use of scientific norms to express the wishes of the data provider.
Reconstructing the public domain can be achieved through the use of a legal tool (waiving the relevant rights on data and asserting that the provider makes no claims on the data).
Requesting behavior, such as citation, through norms and terms of use rather than as a legal requirement based on copyright or contracts, allows for different scientific disciplines to develop different norms for citation. This allows for legal certainty without constraining one community to the norms of another.
Thus, to facilitate data integration and open access data sharing, any implementation of this protocol MUST waive all rights necessary for data extraction and re-use (including copyright, sui generis database rights, claims of unfair competition, implied contracts, and other legal rights), and MUST NOT apply any obligations on the user of the data or database such as “copyleft” or “share alike”, or even the legal requirement to provide attribution. Any implementation SHOULD define a non-legally binding set of citation norms in clear, lay-readable language.
- "I assert that no other statutory or intellectual property rights apply to this data."
Agreeing to this statement satisfies section 4.2 of the Science Commons RFC, which is quoted below.
In many jurisdictions there are other rights, in addition to copyright, that may apply. For example, sui generis rights apply in the European Union, and uncopyrightable databases may be protected in some countries under unfair competition laws.
Thus, to facilitate data integration and open access data sharing, any implementation MUST include waivers of sui generis and other legal grounds for database protection
- "I assert that there are no contractual controls over the data."
Agreeing to this statement satisfies section 4.3 of the Science Commons RFC, which is quoted below.
There is always the possibility of using contract, rather than intellectual property or statutory rights, to apply terms to databases. This fails to provide legal certainty, ease of use, or low transaction costs, as it forces scientists to either hire a lawyer or interpret contracts themselves.
Thus, to facilitate data integration and open access data sharing, any implementation MUST affirmatively declare that contractual constraints do not apply to the database.