Copyright and Licences

Research Data and Copyright

The Swiss federal Act on Copyright (CopA) protects a work if:

  • it is a creation of the mind (the result of human activity and not a machine);
  • it has an individual character (someone else doing the same task will not be able to produce the same work, the work is unique and original).

Photographs of three-dimensional objects have a special status: it is not necessary for them to have an individual character to be protected.

For research data, this means that (Hirschmann 2025):

  • Raw or primary scientific data, e.g., unprocessed data, factual data, formulas, scientific measurements or data harvested by machines, are not protected by copyright;
  • Processed or enriched data that meet the criteria of a creation of the mind, e.g., graphics, text, or images that have some originality, are generally protected by copyright.

Data property

⚠️ Research data produced by the University's collaborators in the course of their duties are the property of the institution (Loi sur l’Université, article 15).

Licenses

A copyright license is a contract in which the author grants non-exclusive permission to use their work and specifies the terms of such use, while retaining their rights as the author.

Copyright licenses operate within the framework of the law. Thus, only works protected by copyright may be made available under a license, and exclusively by the author or the rights holder. Moreover, it is not possible to use a license to prohibit a use if that use is authorized by copyright exceptions (quotation, private use exception, educational use exception, etc.). 

When you share your research data, it is best to assign a license to it, to allow their reuse and thereby contributing to the dissemination of scientific knowledge and open science. 

⚠️At the University of Geneva, although the institution owns the research data, the choice of license is left to the person who conducted the research, as they are the ones who know the data best.

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons (CC) licenses are widely used and recognized in the scientific world. They are irrevocable.

⚠️For research data, the license that is recommended is the CC0 license.

Because it's the only possibility for research data that are not protected by copyright (for example, beause they are raw data, factual data or machine produced data). Other CC licenses are only suitable for data that constitutes copyrighted works (creations of the mind with an individual character)

When you choose CC0, you remove all barriers to reuse and place the data in the public domain. And although CC0 does not legally require you to be cited as the creator of the data, failing to do so would constitute a serious breach of scientific integrity. 

The other CC licenses are composed of 4 elements that can be combined:

cc_by.png BY (Attribution) The author of the work must be cited and the changes made from the original work in the derivative work must be indicated
cc_sa.png

SA (ShareAlike)

 Derivative works must be released under the same license
cc_nc.png

NC (NonCommercial)

 Only non-commercial use of the work is permitted
cc_nd.png

ND (NoDerivatives)

 Modifications or adaptations of the work are not permitted

 

Details of these licenses and the obligations and prohibitions associated with each are listed in a summary table. Creative Commons also provides a FAQ to using their licenses with data and databases.

With research data, it is generally recommended to avoid licenses that include the NC (Non Commercial Use) or ND (No Derivatives) elements because these restrictive licenses hinder interoperability and reuse of the data. This has a direct impact on the advancement of knowledge and the emergence of new scientific knowledge.

Licenses for software (code)

Creative Commons licenses are not suitable for software or code. Instead, Creative Commons recommends looking at "licenses listed as free by the Free Software Foundation and listed as "open source" by the Open Source Initiative."

CCdigitallaw explains what these free and open source software licenses are. 

The EPFL Technology Transfer Office's website helps users understand software protection (what is and isn't covered by copyright, criteria for patent protection, choosing a license, and sharing and distributing software).

Commercial licences

Commercial licenses are managed at UNIGE by UNITEC. 

Help for choosing a license

The license allows people who access the data to know what they are (and are not) permitted to do with it. The license authorizes the use of the data in situations where permission would otherwise be required under copyright law—for example, to distribute, reproduce, or modify the work. It is therefore important to comply with the terms of the license. See Reuse Date webpage.

To learn more

Training at UNIGE

Resources at UNIGE

Data Science for All UNIGE - Data protection: the major legal issues (French only)

External resources

25 August 2026