Overture Maps Foundation recently released their first open map data consisting of Places, Buildings, Transportation, and Administrative Boundaries (Admins) themes. Open data isn’t new to the geoshere, OpenStreetMap paved the way for countless applications and insights over a decade ago! But Overture’s data aims to improve upon the accuracy and reliability of open data with data rigorously curated using standardized schemas.
Overture has released their data themes under two licenses with an important difference between them. These licenses are the more flexible Community Data License Agreement, (CDLA Permissive-2.0), applied to the Places and Administrative Boundaries themes, and the more restrictive Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL), applied to Buildings and Transportation themes.
This article outlines the differences between these licenses so you can get a better idea of what you can and cannot do with each of these data sets.
Before we get started, although I have a law degree, I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice.
Let’s start with the Places and Administrative Boundaries released under the CDLA Permissive 2.0 license.
Places and Administrative Boundaries:
The most flexibly licensed data themes of Overture’s release are the Places and Administrative Boundaries because the CDLA Permissive 2.0 license applied to these data sets only requires users to make the text of the license available, not apply it to their work.
The CDLA Permissive 2.0 license permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution of the licensed data without imposing the copyleft requirements of CDLA Permissive 1.0 or the Share-Alike requirements found in the ODbL license. Under CDLA Permissive 2.0, users are not obligated to share their derivative works under the same license. This means you can create derivative works using the Places and Admins data and apply different licenses of your choosing to your modifications.
Users are required to include the text of the CDLA Permissive 2.0 license when sharing Overture’s data, primarily to make it clear that the source data was provided “as is” and limit liability for data providers. This requirement does not apply to outputs from analysis or machine learning model insights generated from the data, also known as “results”.
Under the CDLA Permissive 2.0 license, datasets containing information from the Places themes, such as tourist attractions, restaurants, and landmarks, can be accessed, modified, monetized, and shared freely. For example, if a developer creates an application utilizing Overture Places data to build a travel guide app and enhances the dataset by adding new Points of Interest (POIs), they are not required to add their POIs to the Overture data or apply the CDLA Permissive 2.0 license to their modified dataset. They have the option to choose a different license for their derivative work, including licenses limiting the openness and creating copyright protections over the modified data.
The CDLA Permissive 2.0 license offers flexibility for users who wish to utilize Places and Admins data in a variety of ways including private, public, and commercial applications. It allows for the growth and diversity of new datasets and products leveraging Overture’s Places and Admins data without mandating data-sharing under the same license. This enables the creation of proprietary data sets which may be more effectively monetized.
Because the CDLA Permissive 2.0 license only requires users to make the text of the license available, not apply it to their work, the most flexible data in Overture’s recent release are the Places and Administrative Boundaries themes released under this license.
Buildings and Transportation Data:
The Buildings and Transportation data themes in Overture’s release are governed by the ODbL license, which imposes Attribute and Share-Alike requirements making it more restrictive compared to CDLA Permissive 2.0.
Under the ODbL license, users are granted the right to use, modify, and distribute Overture’s Buildings and Transportation data. However, if users create derivative databases based on this data, they are bound by the Attribute and Share-Alike requirements, necessitating that they not only recognize the data was in some way sourced from Overture but also license their derivative work under the ODbL. This ensures credit is given where credit is due and safeguards the perpetual openness and availability of any new datasets developed from the original data.
For instance, if a GIS Specialist utilizes the Transportation theme to create a new transportation data set, expanding Overture’s data with additional road network information, if they make their modified dataset available to the public they are obliged to release it under the ODbL as well. Meaning anyone who uses this new dataset may also modify and share it so long as they apply the ODbL license to their work. Here’s where it gets interesting: within the ODbL’s Share Alike provision there is a Keep Open requirement. This means the GIS Specialist is allowed to restrict access to their products and monetize their data behind a paywall only so long as they ALSO make the data available in an open format. This will make monetizing their underlying data more difficult but leaves the door open for compensation from improving user interfaces and accessibility.
The ODbL license prioritizes the sharing of data and encourages collaboration, transparency, and community-driven contributions to datasets. By including a Share-Alike requirement in the license for their most valuable data themes, hampering the ability to monetize derivative data sets built with these themes, Overture is facilitating the perpetuation of open data practices, enabling the continuous improvement and enhancement of Buildings and Transportation data through collective efforts.
The ODbL license enables the utilization, enhancement, and monetization of Overture’s Building and Transportation data while upholding the importance of sharing and openness through the Share-Alike provision. Although it makes monetizing products built with this data more difficult, it promotes the availability of open data resources, encouraging data users to contribute back to the open data community and reinforcing collaborative data sharing.
Conclusion
Overture’s first data release of Places, Buildings, Transportation, and Administrative Boundaries will enable a host of derivative databases, products, and services built with more accurate and reliable open data. The Places and Admins data are more accessible for monetization because they were released under the highly permissive CDLA Permissive 2.0 license. The Buildings and Transportation data themes are arguably more valuable but monetization of derivative databases, products, or services built with these data sets will likely be focused on user interface and accessibility enhancements because the derivative data must be licensed under the more restrictive ODbL license which includes Attribution and Share Alike requirements.
