Abstract
Licenses are important for open government data (OGD) distribution for the purpose of reducing legal uncertainties and increasing data interoperability, especially in linked open data applications. Many standard licenses and open licenses have been created by national governments and OGD organizations to use with the publication and dissemination of OGD. Using a content analysis method, this study examines the U.S. state-level OGD licensing policies and practices. Results show that most state-level governments have OGD policies in the form of formal legislation, executive order, data policy, or terms of use/legal disclaimer, but only twenty-one states have licensing-related policies. Licenses, including a variety of standard open licenses and local custom licenses (most of which are not open licenses), are adopted by more than half of the state portals. The licensing practices are generally consistent with the licensing policies, but inconsistencies can also be identified. The study calls for the state governments to prioritize their OGD licensing policies and practices.
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Zhu, X., Thomas, C., Moore, J.C., Allen, S. (2021). Open Government Data Licensing: An Analysis of the U.S. State Open Government Data Portals. In: Toeppe, K., Yan, H., Chu, S.K.W. (eds) Diversity, Divergence, Dialogue. iConference 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12646. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71305-8_21
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