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Data Licencing

In the SEDOS project, Open Data is one of the main criteria for developing the Reference Energy System (RES) database. Open Data implies adequate licencing as a legal requirement, hence why this section aims to bring you up to speed regarding the nitty-gritty of licencing. By the end of this section, you'll be able to licence your input data adequately.

Suitable data licences in SEDOS

How to document licences in OEMetadata?

If your data set has a licence, follow this example.

For example: 

{
    "sources": [
        {
            "title": "OEDatamodel-parameter",
            "description": "Parameter data model for secondary input scalars and timeseries",
            "path": "https://github.com/sedos-project/oedatamodel/tree/main/oedatamodel-parameter",
            "licenses": [
                {
                    "name": "CC0-1.0",
                    "title": "Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal",
                    "path": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode",
                    "instruction": "You are free: To Share, To Create, To Adapt",
                    "attribution": null
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "title": "Code exposed: Review of five open-source frameworks for modeling renewable energy systems",
            "description": "Energy system modeling is a commonly used method to provide policy recommendations and insight to transformation pathways of energy systems. However, the low open-source availability of the frameworks in practice often leads to low interpretability and transparency of energy modeling system configurations. The configuration of an energy model entails how its system components, such as power plants, storage systems and grids operate, and which parameters are used to define them. In order to understand the impact of different model configurations and working principles on the model output, a thorough comparison between various modeling frameworks is necessary. This work thereby consists of a comparison of five open-source energy system modeling frameworks (OS-ESMFs) oemof, GENeSYS-MOD, Balmorel, urbs and GENESYS-2 on the mathematical level and spotlights selected methodological differences in renewable energy system modeling. The comparison shows diversity in the complexity of selected system components and helps to define the best use-cases and scales of application for each framework. Impacts of modeled features on the results were demonstrated by implementing two harmonized scenarios depicting the German electricity system using each framework. While similar model results were obtained for both scenarios, some differences were present, especially in the long-term expansion planning model. Some of those differences could be traced back to the identified modeling differences.",
            "path": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112272",
            "licenses": [
                {
                    "name": "CC-BY-4.0",
                    "title": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International",
                    "path": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
                    "instruction": "You are free: To Share, To Create, To Adapt",
                    "attribution": null
                }
            ]
        }

    ]
}
  1. For the data collection in WP3-8, you should choose data published under one of the listed licences below.
  2. Add the licence spdx-id and/or correct attribution for respective source in the metadata (oem-key 12.4.1-5).
  3. If your data is published under an open licence not listed below, please get in touch with datenzentrum@rl-institut.de.

    Please note: non-conformant clauses such as
    NC (non commercial) and ND (no derivates)
    are NOT Open Data licences and must not be used.

Public Domain: All rights granted.

Attribution/Permissive: Use rights and relicensing granted. Proprietisation is possible. Correct attribution is required (see licence link).

Share-alike (Copyleft): Use rights granted, propitiation impossible.

For further information on licences, see
* OEP Tutorial on Open-Data Licences
* ifrOSS GitHub
* Open Definition

Missing licence? - Using data without an open licence

How to indicate missing licences in OEMetadata?

If your data set has no licence, please indicate this in the attribution, using this pattern:
"attribution": "copyright. AuthorSurname1, AuthorSurname2, AuthorSurname3 OR Institut1,Institut2,Institut3. Year"

For example: 

{
    "sources": [
        {
            "title": "Impact of electric vehicles on a future renewable energy-based power system in Europe with a focus on Germany",
            "description": "Paper on novel modelling approach comprising a detailed representation of electric vehicles based on real driving patterns and interactions between the power systems of Germany and other European regions.",
            "path": "https://doi.org/10.1002/er.4056",
            "licenses": [
                {
                    "name": null,
                    "title": null,
                    "path": null,
                    "instruction": null,
                    "attribution": "copyright. Miller, Heinz, Rutrecht. 2021"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "title": "Mobilität in Deutschland: Tabellarische Grundauswertung",
            "description": "Mobilität in Deutschland (MiD) ist eine bundesweite Befragung von Haushalten zu ihrem alltäglichen Verkehrsverhalten im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Digitales und Verkehr (BMDV).",
            "path": "https://bmdv.bund.de/SharedDocs/DE/Anlage/G/mid-2017-tabellenband.pdf?__blob=publicationFile",
            "licenses": [
                {
                    "name": null,
                    "title": null,
                    "path": null,
                    "instruction": null,
                    "attribution": "copyright. Reiner Lemoine Institut, RKI. 1991"
                }
            ]
        }
   ]
}

If you want to use a data set without a licence or an open data licence, try the following steps:

  1. Contact the authors of the data set and ask for either the licence or send a request for user-and relicensing rights. Templates in DE and EN can be found here. Please add datenzentrum@rl-institut.de to the CC of the Email and store positive response here.

  2. You can use the unlicensed data if you only extract a considerable small subset of a larger data set.