2. Open Licensing
Note
Indicator Requirement: "Digital public goods must demonstrate the use of an approved open license."
For this indicator, you must provide a public link that explicitly mentions an approved open license for your digital solution. Licenses for Open Software, Open Content, and Open Data are vetted and approved by third-party organizations, and we rely on their criteria in order to include them in our list of acceptable licenses. On top of that, we use SPDX identifiers to easily, efficiently, and uniquely refer to each license.
Here's a quick summary for each DPG category:
- Open Software and Open AI System: We only accept approved licenses from the Open Source Initiative.
- Open Content: You are encouraged to use one of the Creative Commons licenses which allow for both derivatives and commercial reuse (CC BY or CC BY-SA) or dedicate content to the public domain (CC0). We also accept the licenses that do not allow for commercial reuse (CC-BY-NC and CC-BY-NC-SA). To learn more about why we encourage you to use one of the CC licenses that allow for both derivatives and commercial reuse, please read this guide.
- Open Data: We only accept conformant licenses to the Open Definition from the Open Data Commons.
The full list of licenses for all the DPG categories is listed below in the "Acceptable Licenses" section. If you're not sure which license to use, we recommend reading the following resources:
- Choose a License
- tl;dr Legal
- Dual-Licensing Models Explained
- MOSIP - why MPL-2.0
- Source Available vs. Open Source and Proprietary
Important
To qualify as a digital public good, Open Data and Open Content collections must meet the following criteria:
- The collection or datasets can use a mix of approved open licenses, but must not use mixed open licenses with closed/proprietary ones.
- Collections cannot be housed alongside proprietary data or content in a manner that could confuse users.
- The full dataset must be openly licensed, easily discoverable, and accessible from a distinct, single location (e.g., a unique URL).
- To balance openness with the need to prevent abuse and ensure secure access, we will allow logins, registrations, API keys, and API throttling, provided these measures do not discriminate against any users (including discrimination against any person or group of persons or geographical location or restricting anyone from making use of the content/data in a specific field of endeavour).
Open Software and Open AI System
| Full Name | SPDX Identifier |
|---|---|
| 0BSD | 0-clause BSD License |
| AAL | Attribution Assurance License |
| AFL-3.0 | Academic Free License 3.0 |
| AGPL-3.0 | GNU Affero General Public License version 3 |
| Apache-1.1 | Apache Software License 1.1 |
| Apache-2.0 | Apache License 2.0 |
| APL-1.0 | Adaptive Public License |
| APSL-2.0 | Apple Public Source License |
| Artistic-1.0 | Artistic license 1.0 |
| Artistic-2.0 | Artistic License 2.0 |
| BSD-1-Clause | 1-clause BSD License |
| BSD-2-Clause | 2-clause BSD License |
| BSD-2-Clause-Patent | BSD+Patent |
| BSD-3-Clause | 3-clause BSD License |
| BSD-3-Clause-LBNL | BSD-3-Clause-LBNL |
| BSL-1.0 | Boost Software License |
| CAL-1.0 | Cryptographic Autonomy License v.1.0 |
| CAL-1.0-Combined-Work-Exception | Cryptographic Autonomy License v.1.0 |
| CATOSL-1.1 | Computer Associates Trusted Open Source License 1.1 |
| CDDL-1.0 | Common Development and Distribution License 1.0 |
| CECILL-2.1 | CeCILL License 2.1 |
| CNRI-Python | CNRI Python license |
| CPAL-1.0 | Common Public Attribution License 1.0 |
| CPL-1.0 | Common Public License 1.0 |
| ECL-1.0 | Educational Community License, Version 1.0 |
| ECL-2.0 | Educational Community License, Version 2.0 |
| EFL-1.0 | Eiffel Forum License V1.0 |
| EFL-2.0 | Eiffel Forum License V2.0 |
| Entessa | Entessa Public License |
| EPL-1.0 | Eclipse Public License 1.0 |
| EPL-2.0 | Eclipse Public License 2.0 |
| EUDatagrid | EU DataGrid Software License |
| EUPL-1.2 | European Union Public License 1.2 |
| Fair | Fair License |
| Frameworx-1.0 | Frameworx License |
| GPL-2.0 | GNU General Public License version 2 |
| GPL-3.0 | GNU General Public License version 3 |
| HPND | Historical Permission Notice and Disclaimer |
| IPA | IPA Font License |
| IPL-1.0 | IBM Public License 1.0 |
| ISC | ISC License |
| LGPL-2.1 | GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 |
| LGPL-3.0 | GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 |
| LiLiQ-P-1.1 | Licence Libre du Québec – Permissive |
| LiLiQ-R-1.1 | Licence Libre du Québec – Réciprocité |
| LiLiQ-Rplus-1.1 | Licence Libre du Québec – Réciprocité forte |
| LPL-1.0 | Lucent Public License |
| LPL-1.02 | Lucent Public License Version 1.02 |
| LPPL-1.3c | LaTeX Project Public License 1.3c |
| MirOS | MirOS Licence |
| MIT | MIT License |
| MIT-0 | MIT No Attribution License |
| Motosoto | Motosoto License |
| MPL-1.0 | Mozilla Public License 1.0 |
| MPL-1.1 | Mozilla Public License 1.1 |
| MPL-2.0 | Mozilla Public License 2.0 |
| MPL-2.0-no-copyleft-exception | Mozilla Public License 2.0, no copyleft exception |
| MS-PL | Microsoft Public License |
| MS-RL | Microsoft Reciprocal License |
| MulanPSL-2.0 | Mulan Permissive Software License v2 |
| Multics | Multics License |
| NASA-1.3 | NASA Open Source Agreement 1.3 |
| Naumen | Naumen Public License |
| NCSA | University of Illinois/NCSA Open Source License |
| NGPL | Nethack General Public License |
| Nokia | Nokia Open Source License |
| NPOSL-3.0 | Non-Profit Open Software License 3.0 |
| NTP | NTP License |
| OCLC-2.0 | OCLC Research Public License 2.0 |
| OFL-1.1 | SIL Open Font License 1.1 |
| OFL-1.1-no-RFN | SIL Open Font License 1.1 |
| OFL-1.1-RFN | SIL Open Font License 1.1 |
| OGTSL | Open Group Test Suite License |
| OLDAP-2.8 | OpenLDAP Public License Version 2.8 |
| OSET-PL-2.1 | OSET Public License version 2.1 |
| OSL-1.0 | Open Software License 1.0 |
| OSL-2.1 | Open Software License 2.1 |
| OSL-3.0 | Open Software License 3.0 |
| PHP-3.0 | PHP License 3.0 |
| PHP-3.01 | PHP License 3.01 |
| PostgreSQL | The PostgreSQL License |
| Python-2.0 | Python License |
| QPL-1.0 | Q Public License |
| RPL-1.1 | Reciprocal Public License, version 1.1 |
| RPL-1.5 | Reciprocal Public License 1.5 |
| RPSL-1.0 | RealNetworks Public Source License V1.0 |
| RSCPL | Ricoh Source Code Public License |
| SimPL-2.0 | Simple Public License 2.0 |
| Sleepycat | Sleepycat License |
| SPL-1.0 | Sun Public License 1.0 |
| UCL-1.0 | Upstream Compatibility License v1.0 |
| Unicode-DFS-2015 | Unicode Data Files and Software License |
| Unicode-DFS-2016 | Unicode Data Files and Software License |
| Unlicense | The Unlicense |
| UPL-1.0 | Universal Permissive License |
| VSL-1.0 | Vovida Software License v. 1.0 |
| W3C | W3C License |
| Watcom-1.0 | Sybase Open Watcom Public License 1.0 |
| Xnet | X.Net License |
| wxWindows | wxWindows Library License |
| Zlib | zlib/libpng license |
| ZPL-2.0 | Zope Public License 2.0 |
Open Data
| Full Name | SPDX Identifier |
|---|---|
| CC0-1.0 | Creative Commons CC Zero License |
| PDDL-1.0 | Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence 1.0 |
| CC-BY-4.0 | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| CC-BY-SA-4.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 International |
| ODC-By-1.0 | Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0 |
| ODbL-1.0 | Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0 |
Open Content
| Full Name | SPDX Identifier |
|---|---|
| CC-BY-1.0 | Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 Generic |
| CC-BY-2.0 | Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic |
| CC-BY-2.5 | Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic |
| CC-BY-3.0 | Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported |
| CC-BY-3.0-AT | Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Austria |
| CC-BY-3.0-US | Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States |
| CC-BY-4.0 | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
| CC-BY-SA-1.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 1.0 Generic |
| CC-BY-SA-2.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0 Generic |
| CC-BY-SA-2.5 | Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.5 Generic |
| CC-BY-SA-3.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported |
| CC-BY-SA-3.0-AT | Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Austria |
| CC-BY-SA-3.0-US | Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 United States |
| CC-BY-SA-4.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International |
| CC0-1.0 | Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal |
| CC-BY-3.0-IGO | Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO |
| CC-BY-SA-3.0-IGO | Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 IGO |
| Full Name | SPDX Identifier |
|---|---|
| CC-BY-NC-1.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 1.0 Generic |
| CC-BY-NC-2.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 2.0 Generic |
| CC-BY-NC-2.5 | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 2.5 Generic |
| CC-BY-NC-3.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported |
| CC-BY-NC-3.0-US | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 United States |
| CC-BY-NC-4.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International |
| CC-BY-NC-SA-1.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 1.0 Generic |
| CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic |
| CC-BY-NC-SA-2.5 | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 2.5 Generic |
| CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported |
| CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0-US | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 United States |
| CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0 | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International |
| CC-BY-NC-3.0-IGO | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 IGO |
| CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0-IGO | Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 IGO |
The Combined Raw List (Sorted Alphabetically)
0BSD
AAL
AFL-3.0
AGPL-3.0
Apache-1.1
Apache-2.0
APL-1.0
APSL-2.0
Artistic-1.0
Artistic-2.0
BSD-1-Clause
BSD-2-Clause
BSD-2-Clause-Patent
BSD-3-Clause
BSD-3-Clause-LBNL
BSL-1.0
CAL-1.0
CAL-1.0-Combined-Work-Exception
CATOSL-1.1
CC-BY-1.0
CC-BY-2.0
CC-BY-2.5
CC-BY-3.0
CC-BY-3.0-AT
CC-BY-3.0-US
CC-BY-4.0
CC-BY-NC-1.0
CC-BY-NC-2.0
CC-BY-NC-2.5
CC-BY-NC-3.0
CC-BY-NC-3.0-US
CC-BY-NC-4.0
CC-BY-NC-SA-1.0
CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0
CC-BY-NC-SA-2.5
CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0
CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0-US
CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0
CC-BY-SA-1.0
CC-BY-SA-2.0
CC-BY-SA-2.5
CC-BY-SA-3.0
CC-BY-SA-3.0-AT
CC-BY-SA-3.0-US
CC-BY-SA-4.0
CC0-1.0
CDDL-1.0
CECILL-2.1
CNRI-Python
CPAL-1.0
CPL-1.0
ECL-1.0
ECL-2.0
EFL-1.0
EFL-2.0
Entessa
EPL-1.0
EPL-2.0
EUDatagrid
EUPL-1.2
Fair
Frameworx-1.0
GPL-2.0
GPL-3.0
HPND
IPA
IPL-1.0
ISC
LGPL-2.1
LGPL-3.0
LiLiQ-P-1.1
LiLiQ-R-1.1
LiLiQ-Rplus-1.1
LPL-1.0
LPL-1.02
LPPL-1.3c
MirOS
MIT
MIT-0
Motosoto
MPL-1.0
MPL-1.1
MPL-2.0
MPL-2.0-no-copyleft-exception
MS-PL
MS-RL
MulanPSL-2.0
Multics
NASA-1.3
Naumen
NCSA
NGPL
Nokia
NPOSL-3.0
NTP
OCLC-2.0
ODbL-1.0
ODC-By-1.0
OFL-1.1
OFL-1.1-no-RFN
OFL-1.1-RFN
OGTSL
OLDAP-2.8
OSET-PL-2.1
OSL-1.0
OSL-2.1
OSL-3.0
PDDL-1.0
PHP-3.0
PHP-3.01
PostgreSQL
Python-2.0
QPL-1.0
RPL-1.1
RPL-1.5
RPSL-1.0
RSCPL
SimPL-2.0
Sleepycat
SPL-1.0
UCL-1.0
Unicode-DFS-2015
Unicode-DFS-2016
Unlicense
UPL-1.0
VSL-1.0
W3C
Watcom-1.0
Xnet
wxWindows
Zlib
ZPL-2.0
Tip
Here's a collection of extra resources and helpful links curated by the DPGA and the DPG community you can explore or contribute to.
Digital Public Goods (DPGs) are open-source software, open data, open AI systems, and open content collections that adhere to privacy and other applicable laws and best practices, do no harm, and help attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). If you have any questions regarding the DPG application process or anything else, you can ask directly to the DPG Community for guidance or send us an email; we're available to help you.
