Title: Module 3: Copyright, Licences & Open Source Software
Course: Teaching Open Science and Research Data Management for Undergraduates > Section: Module 3: Copyright, Licences & Open Source Software

Intellectual Property and Copyright

Can I use third-party material (images, text, data, video, etc) in my works (training materials, books, articles, etc)?

This is a very common question posed by researchers and other professionals in different fields. The answer, however, may not be the same for every case. A general answer would be “it depends”. And this is because, in addition to data that may be protected under the  General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or regulated under other Directives/Regulations/Laws (e.g., ‘research data’ under the Open Data Directive and IoT data under the Data Act), materials like some photographs, videos, text, databases, and information deemed as secrets can be protected by Intellectual Property Rights, which substantially limit the uses without previous and express authorization of the rightsholder.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)^1, Intellectual Property “is often divided into two main categories: Industrial property includes patents for inventions, industrial designs, trademarks and geographical indications. Copyright and related rights cover literary, artistic and scientific works, including performances and broadcasts.”. Copyright “is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have in their literary, artistic and scientific works. Copyright covers an enormous range of works – not just books, music, paintings, sculpture and films, but also computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings, among other things. There are also rights related to the copyright of the creators that protect the interests of those closely associated with copyrighted works, including performers, broadcasters, and producers of sound recordings.”^2

Directives form the basis of intellectual property law and, therefore, copyright in the EU. They provide a framework for national laws that govern the protection and enforcement of IPRs in each member state.^3 (A list of the existing Directives and Regulations on Copyright can be found at https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/copyright-legislation). However, ultimately, copyright issues are a matter to be addressed by national law, which leads to a scenario where copyright issues are not fully harmonized throughout the EU. (Harmonization is the process of aligning national laws with EU directives and international treaties to ensure consistency and coherence across different legal systems.) Therefore, when considering copyright issues in the scope of a research project, it is important to consider not only the EU Copyright Law but also the national law and, when applicable, sectoral regulation, institutional/funding requirements/policies, and obligations set forth in contracts.

Under EU Copyright Law, the protection of works requires the satisfaction of criteria concerning originality and expression. First, a work must be original to qualify for copyright protection. The notion of originality is harmonized in the EU through the case law of the CJEU^4. Following the landmark decision of the CJEU in Infopaq^5 and its subsequent case law^6,  a work is considered “original” if it resembles the “author’s own intellectual creation”^4. Hence, “originality” can be said to arise from the unique elements embodied in a work that resembles the author’s personality or personal touch.^4

It is important to note that copyright does not cover all the products of the human mind, as is the case of ideas, procedures, methods of operation, and mathematical concepts (art. 2, InfoSoc Directive). This exclusion acknowledges the idea/expression dichotomy and ensures that copyright law does not impede creativity or innovation in these fields. Under the idea/expression dichotomy, copyright protection only applies to the specific expression of an idea rather than the underlying idea itself. This implies that an author is not entitled to exclusive rights over an idea or concept, but solely over its manifestation in tangible form.^7

Are all uses of a copyrighted work considered exclusive (e.g. would require previous authorization from the rightsholder)?

Downloading and sharing a scientific article, a movie or a music may trigger copyright rules. Sharing databases with research partners cross borders, too. The same is true for photocopying a book. These and many others are examples of uses that may be considered exclusive under Copyright Law, i.e., are exclusive to the copyright owner and may require previous authorisation. However, not all uses may require previous authorisation from a third party.

Apart from the uses authorized under a license, it is also possible to use copyrighted works that are in the (i) public domain or (ii) that the use is comprised under the Limitations and Exceptions (L&Es). In summary, ‘being in the public domain’ means that the exclusive economic rights on that copyrighted work have expired and, therefore, everyone can use that work, even for commercial purposes. However, it should be noted that the moral rights of the author should continue to be respected. Also, remember that the material that you intend to use may not be covered by copyright OR that it may be covered by other exclusive rights, as is the case of the SGDR (Sui Generis Database Right)^8, which may require additional and different authorizations.

Concerning Limitations and Exceptions (L&Es), these are provisions that allow the reuse of copyrighted works for different purposes without the previous authorization of the rightsholder. The specific conditions and limitations for each L&E are established in the national copyright laws of each EU member state.

If it is not in public domain and the use is not covered by a L&E, does it mean that I’m not allowed to use a copyrighted work?

If (i) it is protected under copyrights, (ii) it is not in the public domain, (iii) the use is not covered by L&Es and (iv) was not licensed by the rightsholder, then there is a high risk of copyright infringement.  Whereas items (i) to (iii) were already addressed in this section, the next section will provide an overview of the main aspects of (Copyright) Open Licensing.

The content about copyright and licences was reuse and/or adapted from Schirru, L., Colcelli, V., Brizioli, S., Karabuga, E., Fernandes, E., & Margoni, T. (2023). D3.6 - Coordinated set of guides, fact-sheets and FAQs on ELSI aspects for Civil Servants and Policy Makers. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7991444.

References

1. World Intellectual Property Organization. What is Intellectual Property. (2020) p. 3. https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_450_2020.pdf CC BY 3.0 IGO.

2. World Intellectual Property Organization. What is Intellectual Property. (2020) p. 20. https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_450_2020.pdf CC BY 3.0 IGO.

3. European Union. Types of legislation. https://european-union.europa.eu/institutions-law-budget/law/types-legislation_en Accessed 14 Apr 2023.

4. Synodinou, T-E., Jougleux, P., Markou, C., & Prastitou-Merdi, T. (2021). EU Internet Law in the Digital Single Market. Springer, Cham. p. 183

5. Case C 5/08 Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagblades Forening [2009] ECLI:EU:C:2009:465.

6. Case C-393/09 Bezpečnostní softwarová asociace – Svaz softwarové ochrany v Ministerstvo kultury [2011] ECLI:EU:C:2010:816, para 45; Case C-145/10 Eva-Maria Painer v Standard Verlags GmbH [2012] ECLI:EU:C:2013:138, para 87.

7. Lipton and Torremans. (2019). Copyright Law. 3rd edn. p. 47.

8. OpenAIRE. What is the Sui Generis Database Right (SGDR) and how does it relate to other rights in Databases? https://www.openaire.eu/sui-generis-database-right-sgdr CC BY 4.0. Accessed 4 Jun 2025.

(Copyright) Open Licensing

An open license can be defined as “one which grants permission to access, re-use and redistribute a work with few or no restrictions” depending on the chosen license^1.

A well-known example in the research community is the Creative Commons.  Even though they are not the only existing open licensing framework, they are one of the most widely adopted ones, particularly in EC documents and outputs from EU-funded projects. Actually, there are multiple ‘open’ licenses, some of them tailored to the use of particular types of works, as is the case of the FLOSS (Free, Libre and Open Source Software) licenses. Within this specific category of licenses, multiple types are evident, as can be seen from the list made available by the Free Software Foundation:  https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

While the “default rule” of Copyright Law is closer to “All Rights Reserved”, Creative Commons (CC) aims to create an environment in which "Some Rights Reserved" or even "No Rights Reserved" become standard. CC provides several standard-form licenses, allowing creators of literary, musical, and audiovisual works to authorize wide dissemination and transformative use of their works without relinquishing their copyrights.^2 This means that when authors grant broad licenses to the public on a royalty-free basis through open licensing, it does not mean that they have abandoned their copyrights or that the works are not copyright-protected. Instead, they have opted not to exercise certain exclusive rights, such as the right to prevent others from using their work, the right to control its use, and the right to monetize their work.^3 However, CC has also developed the CC0 dedication, which enables authors to renounce all their rights to their work with respect to copyright and related matters^4.

It is important to highlight that CC Licenses are predominantly Copyright Licenses, and, in the case of version 4.0, sui generis database rights (SGDR). Therefore, issues concerning other IP rights and personality rights, for example, are not covered by these licenses.^5 Moreover, these licenses were built to work at the international level as much as possible. However, there are times when their terms may conflict with the national copyright law. This may happen in cases where the Limitations and Exceptions of a copyright law authorize some use that would be allowed under a copyright license. In these cases, the current CC-BY License 4.0., in its Sec 2(a)(2), provides an important clarification: “where Exceptions and Limitations apply to Your use, this Public License does not apply, and You do not need to comply with its terms and conditions”.

Considering the role of FLOSS and Open Licenses in the Open Science community, their potential to allow data sharing and reuse, and the variety of existing licenses, license compatibility is a complex issue when it comes to Copyright Licensing, which can be further developed as the number of sources (and types of licenses) growth.

For more information on License Compatibility, see, e.g. https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Wiki/cc_license_compatibility  and https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html.

Watch the video^6: https://libguides.aalto.fi/copyright/videolectures

Need help choosing a license? Take a look:
Choose a License
Choose an open source license
License Selector

Artificial intelligence introduces a new perspective to copyright, reshaping traditional ideas of authorship and ownership. Read more:

https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2017/05/article_0003.html

https://eucrim.eu/news/generative-ai-and-copyright-law/

https://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/frontier_technologies/news/2024/news_0002.html

The content about copyright and licences was reuse and/or adapted from Schirru, L., Colcelli, V., Brizioli, S., Karabuga, E., Fernandes, E., & Margoni, T. (2023). D3.6 - Coordinated set of guides, fact-sheets and FAQs on ELSI aspects for Civil Servants and Policy Makers. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7991444.

References

1. Open Knowledge Foundation. Open Definition: Defining Open in Open Data, Open Content and Open Knowledge (n.d.) https://opendefinition.org/guide/ Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.

2. Guibault, L. (2011). Open Content Licensing: From Theory to Practice – An Introduction. In Open Content Licensing: From Theory to Practice, edited by Lucie Guibault and Christina Angelopoulos. Amsterdam University Press. p. 7-8.

3. Kreutzer, T. (2011). User-Related Assets and Drawbacks of Open Content Licensing. In Open Content Licensing: From Theory to Practice, edited by Lucie Guibault and Christina Angelopoulos. Amsterdam University Press. p. 107, 112.

4. Janssens, M. C., Gorbatyuk, A., & Rivas, S. P. (2022). Copyright Issues on the Use of Images on the Internet. In Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Cultural Heritage (pp. 191-213). Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 191, 204.

5. Creative Commons. Frequently Asked Questions.  https://creativecommons.org/faq/#is-creative-commons-against-copyright Accessed 13 Jan 2023.

6. Aalto University. Copyright and video lectures. LibGuides. (2022). Learn Copyright in Two Minutes. [Video]. https://libguides.aalto.fi/copyright/videolectures

Open Source Software

Open Source Software refers to software tools and applications that are freely available for use, modification, and distribution by anyone. This concept is based on the principles of open-source licensing (see relevant sections), which often allows users to access the source code, improve it, and share their modifications with the community. In the research context, this openness facilitates transparency, reproducibility, and collaboration, as researchers can build upon the work of others without the restrictions of proprietary software licenses. Using open-source tools for research has several benefits. Researchers can avoid the high costs associated with some commercial software, reducing the barriers to entry for conducting high-quality research. These tools are often developed and maintained by a community of users and developers, which can lead to more robust, versatile, and innovative features driven by the actual needs of researchers. Open-source software can also be more adaptable, as users can customize the tools to fit their specific research requirements. (See also image 1.)

Watch the video (Open Source Software explained as part of a series of animated shorts created for the FSF)^1:
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/watch-and-share-rewind-to-help-explain-free-software

Image 1. Open source vs. closed source. (Patrick Hochstenbach, CC0 1.0)^2

Collaborative research platforms (e.g. GitHub,  Google Drive) leverage the internet and digital technologies to provide a virtual space where scientists and scholars can work together regardless of their geographical location. These platforms typically offer features such as shared document editing, communication channels, project management tools, and data-sharing capabilities. It allows diverse teams to collaborate on projects, facilitates multidisciplinary approaches, and accelerates the pace of discovery by offering an environment for continuous feedback and contributions from peers.

Version control is an essential practice in managing changes to documents, computer programs, large websites, and other collections of information. It involves keeping track of modifications and who made them, allowing users to revert to previous states or collaborate without overwriting each other's work. In research, version control systems are particularly valuable for maintaining the integrity of the evolving codebase, documenting the progression of the research project, and providing a history of the development process that is essential for validating and understanding the final results.

Make sure you remember the FAIR principles by watching the video^3:
https://video.csc.fi/playlist/dedicated/0_723o7br1/0_q2jf8r0y

Read more:

Higman, R., Bangert, D., & Jones, S. (2019). Three camps, one destination: the intersections of research data management, FAIR and Open. https://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.468#rdm-fair-and-open

Levels of open data: 5-star Open Data

References

1. Free Software Foundation. (2020). Rewind. [Video]. https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/watch-and-share-rewind-to-help-explain-free-software CC BY-SA 4.0.

2. Hochstenbach, P. Open source vs. closed source [Image]. Open Science Training Handbook. https://open-science-training-handbook.github.io/Open-Science-Training-Handbook_EN/02OpenScienceBasics/06OpenLicensingAndFileFormats.html CC0 1.0 Universal. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.

3. CSC – IT Center for Science. (2024). The Elements of FAIR. [Video]. CSC Video Service. https://video.csc.fi/playlist/dedicated/0_723o7br1/0_q2jf8r0y