Creative Commons licensing on SEED

SEED makes it possible for every dataset to become something more

All datasets on SEED are freely available and open for use. With appropriate attribution, you can download, share and apply the data to support your work, research or projects.

Any dataset on SEED could:

• become your next business idea
• inform government policy
• help your child win the next (or perhaps the one after the next) Nobel Prize
• contribute to solving a scientific problem
• be the start of a community project
• inspire a creative masterpiece
• support solutions to environmental challenges
• or help you win an argument with the satisfaction that comes from having the evidence to back it up.

What is Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is an international non-profit organisation that established Creative Commons licenses in 2002 to help people legally share knowledge, creativity, and culture.

Some of the world’s most recognised platforms and projects use Creative Commons licenses, including YouTube, Wikipedia, Vimeo and Flickr, and, of course, SEED. 

SEED uses the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0).
This license means you have the right to distribute, merge, reanalyse, adapt, and build upon the data, even for commercial purposes and in any format, so long as attribution is given to the data producer or publisher.
 

Why it’s important

As stated by the authors of Licensing Best Practices for Sharing Scientific Data:
“Open data is central to accelerating scientific progress because it allows researchers everywhere to freely access, verify, combine, and build upon existing data without legal or technical barriers, dramatically increasing the speed, scale, and collaboration of discovery.”

Creative Commons licenses help remove legal barriers to using data, making collaboration and innovation easier. Open access to data has supported scientific advances, informed responses to global challenges such as Climate Change and COVID-19, and improved weather forecasting, making travel safer for everyone. 
 

Why is it available on SEED?

SEED was developed with and for the community, providing a single place to access, explore, share, contribute to and use NSW environmental data. By making trusted environmental information easier to discover and understand, SEED empowers everyone—from community members and researchers to industry and government—to make informed decisions and ensure the environment is considered in planning, policy and everyday actions.

By applying a Creative Commons licence to datasets on SEED, users can confidently access, share and reuse environmental data for a wide range of purposes, provided the appropriate attribution is given. This supports the NSW Government Open Data Policy, which promotes making government data both accessible and usable through licensing arrangements that facilitate its release and reuse.

SEED is free to access while delivering significant economic, environmental and social value. By improving access to trusted environmental information, it supports better planning and decision-making, reduces duplication across government, and enables innovation through open data. Its return on public investment is realised through faster, more informed decisions and better outcomes for communities and the environment.

How do I use the license?

The requirements are simple:

1. Provide attribution to the data producer or publisher.
2. Do not apply legal or technical restrictions that prevent others from exercising the same licence rights.

SEED makes attribution easy through the built-in citation function available on all datasets. 
SEED is also updating dataset citations to align with current best practices for sharing and citing scientific data.

How to cite a dataset

To access a dataset citation:

1. Open a dataset page on SEED.
2. Scroll to the Citations and Views section near the bottom of the page.
3. Select With this citation.
4. A pop-up window will appear containing the recommended citation text.
5. Copy and use the citation wherever you reference the dataset.

While you’re there, you can let us know how you are using the data or check out how others have.