Data Licensing on the Cloud - Empirical Evidence and Implications for Linked Data

This paper investigates necessities and pitfalls in existing data licensing practices on the World Wide Web. The authors analyzed four open data portals with respect to the available licenses and drew conclusions about the quantity and quality of available licensing information. Additionally the authors address reasoning issues with respect to the automatic detection and potential clearance of licensing conflicts when creating derivative works from multiple data sources. The issues raised in this paper should be taken into account when designing and implementing a Linked Data licensing policy.