OGL Canada and local variants

From OpenStreetMap Foundation

Canada has had various open government data licensing schemes in its history, with varying names. In addition, localities often adapt a version of the federal or provincial licence and make tweaks, some inconsequential, others that potentially make the licence incompatible. Confusingly, different names (Open Government Licence and Open Data Licence) have been used for licences that are in essence the same base licence, as well as for licence with substantial differences, making it difficult to determine universal compatibility.

The Licensing Working Group's (LWG) practice is to review for compatibility on a licence by licence basis. However, generally speaking, if the only change to the licence from the federal version a change to the locality, the licence is likely compatible. You can run a diff and request that LWG approve (which will then get added to the list below).

Evaluating Canadian Open Data Licenses

Many Canadian municipalities offer open data that can be of use to OpenStreetMap. Unfortunately, this data is often published under unique licenses that are not used anywhere else. Luckily, many of these licenses are similar, with only minor changes that distinguish them. As long as these changes are of the types the License Working Group (LWG) has previously evaluated, the data can be used.

Here is the recommended procedure for evaluating whether a Canadian open dataset may be used:

1. Check for a prior approval of the license on https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/OGL_Canada_and_local_variants and https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Canada.
2. If no approval exists, run a diff between the license and the Ottawa Open Data License 2.0.
3. Note the differences. The license is likely to be usable if the differences are limited to:

  • references to the name of the locality (e.g., province of Manitoba; city of Calgary)
  • setting the legal venue for disputes (typically, to match the locality’s province)
  • aligning the definition of personally identifiable information (PII) with the definition used by the locality (typically with a reference to provincial law)
  • setting the definition of "records" to match the definition used by the locality (typically with a reference to provincial law) (see, e.g., https://data.edmonton.ca/stories/s/City-of-Edmonton-Open-Data-Terms-of-Use/msh8-if28/)

If these are the only differences, add the license to https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Contributors#North_America_and_Caribbean (follow previous Canada examples). Please also email a copy of your explanation as to why the license is substantially the same as an already-approved license to legal-questions@osmfoundation.org so that we can update https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Canada accordingly. You may then import or otherwise use the data within OSM, subject to usual Import Guidelines. If there are other kinds of differences, or if you are uncertain whether the differences you see fall into the above categories, please email your findings and questions to legal-questions@osmfoundation.org so that the LWG can evaluate them in more detail. Please do not import or otherwise use the data within OSM until the LWG determines that the license is compatible.

The following licences have been officially deemed compatible, after review by the LWG. Other variants may also be deemed compatible. This list is work in process and will be updated as more information becomes available.

Note: All of these licences require attribution. Before importing Canada open data, check to make sure the data source you are using is listed appropriately at https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Contributors#Canada with the appropriate attribution.

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