Launch of Open Government Licence 3.0

31 Oct 2014 03:23 PM

Recently we have launched the Open Government Licence version 3.0. This follows consultation with users and other stakeholders in the open data community on how the Licence could be developed further to reflect new thinking on the licensing of public sector information. 

The Open Government Licence (OGL) is part of the UK Government Licensing Framework (UKGLF) which was launched in 2010. The OGL permits the use and re-use of a wide range of government and other public sector information. This supports the government's policy on transparency and open data.

The basic terms and conditions of the Open Government Licence version 3.0 remain the same as the previous version. It continues to:

• permit use and re-use of information in any format for both commercial and non-commercial purposes without charge
• require re-users to publish an acknowledgment of the source of the information
• exclude personal information from the licence
• be compatible with other licensing models, such as Creative Commons, and is Open Definition conformant

The main change is to the wording of the requirement to publish an attribution statement. This makes it clear that re-users must include any statements specified by information providers at all times, even when they are using information from a number of different sources. 

As the Open Government Licence version is a perpetual licence, those already using information made available under OGL version 1.0 or OGL version 2.0 will be able to continue to do so. The move to OGL version 3.0 applies to new users of information, once the relevant website and publishing copyright notices have been updated.