How will people know that they can use the factual information in a database?
We recommend that database providers make it clear that only some elements of their database are protected by copyright (and subject to a Creative Commons license) and some elements are free to be used & reused outside of the license. As you know, Creative Commons and Science Commons work to promote freely available content and information. Our preference is that people do not overstate their copyright or other legal rights. Consequently, we adopt the position that “facts are free” and people should be educated so that they are aware of this. Database providers may want to think about including a statement where you include your Creative Commons “Some Rights Reserved” button that acknowledges that the database is only under a Creative Commons license “to the extent that copyright protects the database” and then give some examples of the elements in the database that are likely to be factual and excluded from the scope of copyright and the Creative Commons license.
