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Chapter III – Conditions for re-use (Art. 5-10)

Art. 5 Open Data Directive - Available formats arrow_right_alt

Art. 6 Open Data Directive - Principles governing charging arrow_right_alt

Art. 7 Open Data Directive - Transparency arrow_right_alt

Art. 8 Open Data Directive - Standard licences arrow_right_alt

  1. The re-use of documents shall not be subject to conditions, unless such conditions are objective, proportionate, non-discriminatory and justified on grounds of a public interest objective.

When re-use is subject to conditions, those conditions shall not unnecessarily restrict possibilities for re-use and shall not be used to restrict competition.

  1. In Member States where licences are used, Member States shall ensure that standard licences for the re-use of public sector documents, which can be adapted to meet particular licence applications, are available in digital format and can be processed electronically. Member States shall encourage the use of such standard licences.
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Recital 44

The re-use of documents should not be subject to conditions. However, in some cases justified by a public interest objective, a licence may be issued imposing conditions on the re-use by the licensee dealing with issues such as liability, the protection of personal data, the proper use of documents, guaranteeing non-alteration and the acknowledgement of source. If public sector bodies license documents for re-use, the licence conditions should be objective, proportionate and non-discriminatory. Standard licences that are available online may also play an important role in this respect. Therefore Member States should provide for the availability of standard licences. Any licences for the re-use of public sector information should, in any event, place as few restrictions on re-use as possible, for example limiting restrictions to an indication of source. Open licences in the form of standardised public licences available online which allow data and content to be freely accessed, used, modified and shared by anyone for any purpose, and which rely on open data formats, should play an important role in this respect. Therefore, Member States should encourage the use of open licences that should eventually become common practice across the Union. Without prejudice to liability requirements laid down in Union or national law where a public sector body or a public undertaking makes documents available for re-use without any other conditions or restrictions, that public sector body or public undertaking may be allowed to waive all liability with regards to the documents made available for re-use.

Recital 45

If the competent authority decides no longer to make available certain documents for re-use, or to cease updating those documents, it should make those decisions publicly known, at the earliest opportunity, by electronic means where possible.

Recital 47

Member States should in particular ensure that re-use of documents of public undertakings does not lead to market distortion and that fair competition is not undermined.

Recital 48

Public sector bodies should comply with Union and national competition rules when establishing the principles for re-use of documents avoiding as far as possible exclusive agreements between themselves and private partners. However, in order to provide a service of general economic interest, an exclusive right to re-use specific public sector documents may sometimes be necessary. This may be the case if no commercial publisher would publish the information without such an exclusive right. In this regard, it is appropriate to take into account public service contracts that are excluded from the scope of Directive 2014/24/EU pursuant to Article 11 of that Directive and innovation partnerships as referred to in Article 31 of Directive 2014/24/EU.

Recital 49

There are numerous cooperation arrangements between libraries, including university libraries, museums, archives and private partners, which involve digitisation of cultural resources granting exclusive rights to private partners. Practice has shown that such public-private partnerships can facilitate worthwhile use of cultural collections and at the same time accelerate access to the cultural heritage for members of the public. It is therefore appropriate to take into account current divergences between Member States with regard to digitisation of cultural resources, by a specific set of rules pertaining to agreements on digitisation of such resources. Where an exclusive right relates to digitisation of cultural resources, a certain period of exclusivity might be necessary in order to give the private partner the possibility to recoup its investment. That period should, however, be limited to as short a time as possible in order to comply with the principle that public domain material should stay in the public domain once it is digitised. The period of an exclusive right to digitise cultural resources should in general not exceed 10 years. Any period of exclusivity longer than 10 years should be subject to review, taking into account technological, financial and administrative changes in the environment since the arrangement was entered into. In addition, any public private partnership for the digitisation of cultural resources should grant the partner cultural institution full rights with respect to the post-termination use of digitised cultural resources.

Art. 9 Open Data Directive - Practical arrangements arrow_right_alt

Art. 10 Open Data Directive - Research data arrow_right_alt