Can a Creative Commons license be applied to a database?
In short, yes—a Creative Commons license can probably be applied to a database, or at least, to some aspects of a database. Databases usually are comprised of at least four elements: (1) a set of field names identifying the data; (2) a structure (or model), which includes the organization of fields and relations among them; (3) data sheets; and (4) data. All of the Creative Commons licenses can be applied to these elements to the extent that copyright applies to them (and the Dutch and Belgium licenses can also be applied to the data, for reasons discussed in greater detail below. Copyright applies to minimally creative works expressed in a fixed form. In most databases, items (2) and (3) – the structure and the data sheet – will reflect sufficient creativity for copyright to apply. A Creative Commons license applied to these elements will permit copying of these elements under the conditions of the license selected. Field names, such as “Address” for the name of the field for street a
