This page explains about copyright in our datasets. It also explains the rights statements and licences we use when we make our data available.  


Copyright in our data

Copyright is an intellectual property right that protects original works, including written, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. 

Copyright protection reserves the right to undertake or authorise certain acts to the copyright owner(s), who is normally the creator or author of the work in the first instance. The acts restricted by copyright are:

— Copying the work, including any activity that recreates a work, such photocopying, photographing, or transcribing text 

— Issuing copies of the work to the public 

— Renting or lending the work to the public 

— Performing, showing or playing the work in public 

— Communicating the work to the public 

— Making an adaptation of the work. 

Copyright protection is time-limited, and, depending on the nature of the work, normally expires 70 years after the last living author dies. 

The content of our datasets may be in-copyright or may have previously been in-copyright. We provide copyright information alongside our datasets, as set out on this page. These statements and licences reflect the copyright status of the works within our datasets.  


Open data

We do not assert further copyright control over the datasets that we produce. For example, if we create and publish a dataset of text from an out-of-copyright work, we will normally make that dataset available under the public domain mark. This reflects that the content of the dataset is in the public domain.  


Rights statements and licences

We apply rights statements to our data. These statements explain the copyright status of some or all the data in the dataset. We also apply licences to some of our data. Licences grant permission to use data that are subject to copyright protection. Data that are not subject to copyright protection, for example because protection has expired, do not have licences and may normally be re-used without further permission, as detailed below. 

We currently publish data under the following rights statements: 

Public Domain Mark – This statement means that the associated data is free of known copyright restrictions and is in the public domain. Data is usually free of known copyright restrictions because copyright has expired. You may re-use data that is in the public domain without further permission. You do not need to provide attribution when re-using data that is in the public domain, but it may be helpful to provide a citation to this site, to the Library, and/or to the creator of the data so that others understand the source of the data.   

No Known Copyright – This statement means that the associated data is likely to be free of known copyright restrictions, but that we have insufficient information to confirm that the material is in the public domain. Data is usually free of known copyright restrictions because copyright has expired. Copyright duration is normally linked to the lifespan of the creator(s) of the work. It is not always possible or practical to determine the lifespan of all creators associated with a work. We apply this statement to older material that is likely on the balance of probability to be free of known copyright restrictions, because it is unlikely that any named creators were living within the last seventy years. We do not place any restrictions on your use of this material, but you should proceed with more caution than with material that is marked as public domain content.  

Copyright Undetermined – This statement means that the copyright status of the associated data has been evaluated, but this process was inconclusive. The associated data may be protected by copyright. Data is usually free of known copyright restrictions because copyright has expired. Copyright duration is normally linked to the lifespan of the creator(s) of the work. It is not always possible or practical to determine the lifespan of all creators associated with a work. We apply this statement to material that may remain in-copyright. We do not place any restrictions on your use of this material, but you should proceed with more caution than with material that is marked as public domain content. 

No Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Only – This statement means that the associated data is free of known copyright restrictions and is in the public domain, but that use of this version of the work is limited by a contract. Data is usually free of known copyright restrictions because copyright has expired. You may re-use data that is made available under this statement for non-commercial purposes without further permission. However, due to contractual restrictions, you need to permission before you may use this data for commercial purposes. You do not need to provide attribution when re-using this data for non-commercial purposes, but it may be helpful to provide a citation to this site, to the Library, and/or to the creator of the data so that others understand the source of the data. For permission to re-use this data for commercial purposes, please contact the Library: National Library of Scotland Copyright enquiries

We currently publish in-copyright data under the following licences or dedications: 

Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal (CC 0) – Data associated with this dedication has been placed into the public domain and all associated copyright and related rights have been waived. You may re-use data that is in the public domain without further permission. You do not need to provide attribution when re-using data that is in the public domain, but it may be helpful to provide a citation to this site, to the Library, and/or to the creator of the data so that others understand the source of the data.  

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) – You are free to share and adapt data that has been made available under this licence, but you must provide attribution to the source of the data and a link or reference to this licence.  


Further information

More information about copyright and re-use is available from the Library’s Copyright page: National Library of Scotland Copyright


Copyright in this website 

Our websites and other non-collection materials, such as our corporate documents, are normally protected by copyright. 

Unless otherwise specified, non-collection material (excluding images, logos and branding) is copyright National Library of Scotland and available for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.