For Key Session on Creating the Global Information Commons for Science

Common Use Licensing in China

Chunyan Wang, Project Lead, Creative Commons China Mainland

This talk will first address several terminology issues, including the terms “Information Commons”, “Knowledge Commons”, “Knowledge Sharing” and “Creative Commons”, and their use in the Chinese context. Then I will cover the background and the status of Creative Commons (CC) licenses and their local versions, i.e., the China mainland versions of the CC licenses.

Secondly, I will talk about the current situation regarding the usage and application of licenses for scientific data sharing in China. In China, we do not yet have the practice of “Common Use Licensing”. The available licenses dealing with scientific data sharing fall into the category of traditional licenses, rather than the “common use license”. The use of traditional licenses for scientific data has some advantages and some disadvantages. Common use licensing, on the other hand, does not have the disadvantages and is therefore most helpful for building global information commons.

Finally, I will focus on the analysis of possible ways to introduce CC licenses into the area of scientific data sharing in China.

Keywords: China, common-use license, scientific data sharing