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Open data catalogue

Open data licences in plain words.

The open data catalogue lists 60 public datasets from other publishers.17 of them are recorded under 6 standard licences that has an official deed or statute page, and this page summarises each of those. The other 43 are recorded under 34 wordings that is custom, mixed or unclear, so each is kept as the catalogue records it, with no summary here.

This is a summary, not legal advice; the licence text is what applies. The counts are made from the catalogue when the site is built (the catalogue was checked on 2026-10-23), and the summaries were read from the official pages listed under Sources on 2026-10-24. Licences can change, so check the publisher's page before you reuse a dataset.

Datasets per licence

Number of datasets per licence group

40 licence groups in all. The largest, CC BY 4.0, has 7 datasets. 6 are standard licences with an official page; 34 are kept as the catalogue records them.

  1. CC BY 4.07 datasets
  2. CC0 1.0 Universal5 datasets
  3. “U.S. Public Domain” (USGS-authored data)4 datasets
  4. MIT License (repository)4 datasets
  5. “No restrictions” from NCBI; submitters may claim rights2 datasets
  6. “Public use without restriction” (NOAA NCEI)2 datasets
  7. CC BY-SA 4.02 datasets
  8. Census Bureau API terms of service2 datasets
  9. “Freely available for download” (Argo)1 datasets
  10. “Public Domain Mark”, no version stated (CourtListener)1 datasets
  11. Acknowledgement requested, no licence named (NASA Exoplanet Archive)1 datasets
  12. Apache License 2.0 (repository)1 datasets
  13. Battelle permission notice in the repository LICENSE file1 datasets
  14. BLS API Terms of Service1 datasets
  15. BSD-style licence or GNU LGPL (Archive of Formal Proofs)1 datasets
  16. CC BY 4.0 annotations and CC BY 2.0 images (Open Images)1 datasets
  17. CC BY-NC 4.01 datasets
  18. CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported1 datasets
  19. CC BY-SA 4.0 and GNU Free Documentation License (Wikimedia)1 datasets
  20. Common Crawl Terms of Use1 datasets
  21. Controlled access, no licence named (dbGaP)1 datasets
  22. Data passport, tiered access, no licence named (All of Us)1 datasets
  23. Each dataset carries its publisher’s terms (Data.gov)1 datasets
  24. FRED terms (non-commercial, educational, personal use)1 datasets
  25. IGSR data disclaimer and reuse statements1 datasets
  26. Materials Project terms of use1 datasets
  27. NASA data guidance: no restrictions on use1 datasets
  28. NASS Terms of Service (API)1 datasets
  29. NIST “public information”, credit requested1 datasets
  30. NIST Standard Reference Data Act; covered by copyright1 datasets
  31. No cost, no separate licence stated (NASA PDS)1 datasets
  32. No separate licence stated (NOAA Tides and Currents API)1 datasets
  33. Open Access Data Use Terms (HCP)1 datasets
  34. Open and controlled tiers, no licence named (NCI GDC)1 datasets
  35. OSTI access terms; some items copyrighted1 datasets
  36. PhysioNet Credentialed Health Data License 1.5.01 datasets
  37. Public domain and Creative Commons, set by each contributor (Open Context)1 datasets
  38. Set by each treebank (Universal Dependencies)1 datasets
  39. U.S. government publications in the public domain, plus API terms (EIA)1 datasets
  40. U.S. government work, 17 U.S.C. § 1051 datasets

Licences with an official page are named as usual. Every other group is labelled with the catalogue's own wording, shortened; the full wording is shown with each dataset below.

Show the data as a table
Number of datasets per licence group. Each dataset is in exactly one group, so the counts add up to 60.
Licence groupdatasets
CC BY 4.07
CC0 1.0 Universal5
“U.S. Public Domain” (USGS-authored data)4
MIT License (repository)4
“No restrictions” from NCBI; submitters may claim rights2
“Public use without restriction” (NOAA NCEI)2
CC BY-SA 4.02
Census Bureau API terms of service2
“Freely available for download” (Argo)1
“Public Domain Mark”, no version stated (CourtListener)1
Acknowledgement requested, no licence named (NASA Exoplanet Archive)1
Apache License 2.0 (repository)1
Battelle permission notice in the repository LICENSE file1
BLS API Terms of Service1
BSD-style licence or GNU LGPL (Archive of Formal Proofs)1
CC BY 4.0 annotations and CC BY 2.0 images (Open Images)1
CC BY-NC 4.01
CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported1
CC BY-SA 4.0 and GNU Free Documentation License (Wikimedia)1
Common Crawl Terms of Use1
Controlled access, no licence named (dbGaP)1
Data passport, tiered access, no licence named (All of Us)1
Each dataset carries its publisher’s terms (Data.gov)1
FRED terms (non-commercial, educational, personal use)1
IGSR data disclaimer and reuse statements1
Materials Project terms of use1
NASA data guidance: no restrictions on use1
NASS Terms of Service (API)1
NIST “public information”, credit requested1
NIST Standard Reference Data Act; covered by copyright1
No cost, no separate licence stated (NASA PDS)1
No separate licence stated (NOAA Tides and Currents API)1
Open Access Data Use Terms (HCP)1
Open and controlled tiers, no licence named (NCI GDC)1
OSTI access terms; some items copyrighted1
PhysioNet Credentialed Health Data License 1.5.01
Public domain and Creative Commons, set by each contributor (Open Context)1
Set by each treebank (Universal Dependencies)1
U.S. government publications in the public domain, plus API terms (EIA)1
U.S. government work, 17 U.S.C. § 1051

What each licence says, and the datasets under it

CC BY 4.0 (7 datasets)

What it lets you do

  • Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Remix, transform, and build upon the material, for any purpose, even commercially.

What it asks of you

  • Give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made, in any reasonable manner but not in a way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • Do not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits.

Worth knowing

  • You do not have to comply with the licence for elements of the material in the public domain, or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given, and the licence may not give you all the permissions you need for your use; rights such as publicity, privacy or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Source [2], checked .

Show the official wording behind this summary
  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

CC0 1.0 Universal (5 datasets)

What it lets you do

  • Copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

What it asks of you

The official page names no conditions.

Worth knowing

  • Whoever applied CC0 has waived their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, to the extent allowed by law.
  • CC0 does not affect anyone’s patent or trademark rights, or other rights others may have in the work or in how it is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.

Source [1], checked .

Show the official wording behind this summary
  • You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
  • The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.
  • In no way are the patent or trademark rights of any person affected by CC0, nor are the rights that other persons may have in the work or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.

“U.S. Public Domain” (USGS-authored data) (4 datasets)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

MIT License (repository) (4 datasets)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

“No restrictions” from NCBI; submitters may claim rights (2 datasets)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

“Public use without restriction” (NOAA NCEI) (2 datasets)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

CC BY-SA 4.0 (2 datasets)

What it lets you do

  • Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Remix, transform, and build upon the material, for any purpose, even commercially.

What it asks of you

  • Give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made, in any reasonable manner but not in a way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, distribute your contributions under the same licence as the original.
  • Do not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits.

Worth knowing

  • You do not have to comply with the licence for elements of the material in the public domain, or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given, and the licence may not give you all the permissions you need for your use; rights such as publicity, privacy or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Source [3], checked .

Show the official wording behind this summary
  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Census Bureau API terms of service (2 datasets)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

“Freely available for download” (Argo) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

“Public Domain Mark”, no version stated (CourtListener) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Acknowledgement requested, no licence named (NASA Exoplanet Archive) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

  • NASA Exoplanet Archive

    Publisher: NASA Exoplanet Archive, operated by Caltech under contract with NASA

    Catalogue records: Publications using the archive are asked to include the standard acknowledgement ("This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program.").

    Terms page for NASA Exoplanet Archive · Official source: NASA Exoplanet Archive

Apache License 2.0 (repository) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Battelle permission notice in the repository LICENSE file (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

  • QASMBench

    Publisher: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Battelle Memorial Institute)

    Catalogue records: Battelle grants permission to use, copy, modify, publish and distribute the software and documentation, with or without modification, under the terms in the repository LICENSE file.

    Terms page for QASMBench · Official source: QASMBench

BLS API Terms of Service (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

BSD-style licence or GNU LGPL (Archive of Formal Proofs) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

CC BY 4.0 annotations and CC BY 2.0 images (Open Images) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

CC BY-NC 4.0 (1 dataset)

What it lets you do

  • Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
  • Remix, transform, and build upon the material.

What it asks of you

  • Give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made, in any reasonable manner but not in a way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • Do not use the material for commercial purposes.
  • Do not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits.

Worth knowing

  • You do not have to comply with the licence for elements of the material in the public domain, or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given, and the licence may not give you all the permissions you need for your use; rights such as publicity, privacy or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Source [4], checked .

Show the official wording behind this summary
  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported (1 dataset)

What it lets you do

  • Copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Remix, transform, and build upon the material, for any purpose, even commercially.

What it asks of you

  • Give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made, in any reasonable manner but not in a way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, distribute your contributions under the same licence as the original.
  • Do not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the licence permits.

Worth knowing

  • You do not have to comply with the licence for elements of the material in the public domain, or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given, and the licence may not give you all the permissions you need for your use; rights such as publicity, privacy or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Source [5], checked .

Show the official wording behind this summary
  • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

CC BY-SA 4.0 and GNU Free Documentation License (Wikimedia) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Common Crawl Terms of Use (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Controlled access, no licence named (dbGaP) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Data passport, tiered access, no licence named (All of Us) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Each dataset carries its publisher’s terms (Data.gov) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

FRED terms (non-commercial, educational, personal use) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

IGSR data disclaimer and reuse statements (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Materials Project terms of use (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

NASA data guidance: no restrictions on use (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

  • NASA Earthdata

    Publisher: NASA Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS)

    Catalogue records: NASA data guidance says "there are no restrictions on the use of these data"; content marked with its own licence or restriction, and non-NASA data, follow their own terms. Users are strongly urged to cite the data they use.

    Terms page for NASA Earthdata · Official source: NASA Earthdata

NASS Terms of Service (API) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

NIST “public information”, credit requested (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

NIST Standard Reference Data Act; covered by copyright (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

No cost, no separate licence stated (NASA PDS) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

No separate licence stated (NOAA Tides and Currents API) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Open Access Data Use Terms (HCP) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Open and controlled tiers, no licence named (NCI GDC) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

OSTI access terms; some items copyrighted (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

  • OSTI.GOV

    Publisher: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI)

    Catalogue records: OSTI says public access does not mean materials are in the public domain; some items are copyrighted and OSTI provides access under their terms. Please acknowledge the source when re-using.

    Terms page for OSTI.GOV · Official source: OSTI.GOV

PhysioNet Credentialed Health Data License 1.5.0 (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Public domain and Creative Commons, set by each contributor (Open Context) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

Set by each treebank (Universal Dependencies) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

U.S. government publications in the public domain, plus API terms (EIA) (1 dataset)

Terms set by the publisher; read them on the dataset’s page.

U.S. government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105 (1 dataset)

What it lets you do

  • Section 105(a) says copyright protection is not available for any work of the United States Government.

What it asks of you

The official page names no conditions.

Worth knowing

  • The section has further subsections after (a); read the full section for how they apply. The catalogue also notes that non-government content on that site may be protected.

Source [6], checked .

Show the official wording behind this summary
  • Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government, but the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.
  • (b) Copyright Protection of Certain Works.—Subject to subsection (c), the covered author of a covered work owns the copyright to that covered work.

Sources

Each summary above is based only on the official page named here. This is a summary, not legal advice; the licence text is what applies.

  1. CC0 1.0 Universal deed, Creative Commons. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Checked .
  2. Attribution 4.0 International deed, Creative Commons. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Checked .
  3. Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International deed, Creative Commons. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Checked .
  4. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International deed, Creative Commons. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Checked .
  5. Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported deed, Creative Commons. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Checked .
  6. 17 U.S.C. § 105, Circular 92, U.S. Copyright Office. https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#105. Checked .