Digital strategy for Leipzig and the region

Open access requires that the use of the data is permitted for any purpose, by any person or any group, without having to justify their actions. The information should be provided without physical or technical barriers via programmatic interfaces such as the Open-Data-Finder (open.destination.one). Through the Open Data Finder, external providers can pull open data from Leipzig via API (interface) or widget and display it through digital applications such as apps, PWAs, digital info terminals, or websites. A successful example of using open POI data via API is the Notenspuren App of the City of Leipzig.

A free-of-charge access means that no licence fees or other compensation are required for using the data. In general, the work as a whole should preferably be available via the internet. The free use of the licensed work is enabled through appropriate licences – Creative Commons. Free-of-charge access contributes to the wide distribution of the data.

The terms of use for open data are governed by licenses. These include the unrestricted use, sharing, modification, linking, and refinement of the data. These licenses are necessary because every new work of intellectual creation is automatically protected by strict copyright from the moment it is created, without requiring a copyright notice or registration. 

In practice, this means that using these works requires a contractual agreement between the creator and the user. We are happy to support you with legally reviewed sample contracts that you can use as the contractual basis between you and your photographer.  

Feel free to contact us directly. 

The nonprofit organization Creative Commons provides pre-formulated and modular license agreements for independent use by authors or rights holders. These are legally complete and properly formulated. This means that each individual user does not need to ask for permission to distribute the content or use it as a starting point for new creations. By granting Creative Commons licenses, the author has clearly and irrevocably defined how their creative works may be used.

Before publishing data under CC licenses, a prior review of the content is necessary. Violating the copyright of producers or the image and personal rights of the individuals depicted can lead to legal and financial consequences. Additionally, data quality and technical availability are important criteria for publishing data with CC licenses.

The following checklist can help assess whether images are suitable for Open Data CC licenses:

• Are people shown in the photo? Are faces clearly recognizable, and is anyone looking directly into the camera? –> Image not suitable
• Several people are shown at an event, but no individual stands out and the people are not clearly identifiable (e.g., due to blurring, a side or back view) –> the image is eligible
• One or more people appear in the background of a landmark/landscape, but no individual stands out and the people are not clearly identifiable (e.g., due to blurring, a side or back view) –> the image is eligible
• Does the image show protected brands or other recognizable trademarks (e.g., Facebook or Instagram icons), or names of hotels or restaurants? –> Image not suitable
• Are pets shown in the image and clearly recognizable? –> Not suitable, as commercial use of these images is prohibited without the creator’s consent
• Are other artworks or monuments visible in the image? –> Additional copyright review necessary
• Are listed buildings visible in the image? –> Additional copyright review necessary to determine whether the photo was taken in a public space (freedom of panorama). Especially when other elements such as people, trees, or streets are visible, it can generally be assumed that freedom of panorama applies.
• Does the image show objects of particular creative value (e.g., handmade pottery, designer clothing)? –> Image not suitable, as commercial use is prohibited without the creator’s consent.

In practice, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether an exception applies. For this reason, we generally recommend refraining from publishing images under CC licenses when people are clearly identifiable.

Images that have already been purchased or produced on commission can generally be licensed under CC at a later time. The requirements for this are:

• The creator of the images and any rights holders are clearly identified.
• Exclusive and comprehensive usage rights (unlimited in time, location, and content) exist for the images.
• The creator and any additional rights holders provide written consent for publishing the data under CC licenses.

However, this process can be quite time-consuming, especially when multiple rights holders are involved. Therefore, it is always beneficial to purchase images already under CC licenses!

To help you purchase or retroactively license images under CC licenses, we provide sample contracts for the following licenses:

• CC BY = Attribution
• CC BY SA = “Share Alike” = Attribution, obligation to distribute under the same conditions
• CC BY ND = “No Derivatives” = Attribution, modification of the work is not permitted

You would like to purchase images under CC licenses and need a contractual basis? Then please contact Jamina Mertz by email ().

Another characteristic of Open Data is the use of a machine-readable, open and non-proprietary data format. Machine-readable data formats are those that can be further processed by a computer. Not all information captured in electronic form is automatically machine-readable; for example, a PDF file is easy for people to read, but remains difficult to access for automated reuse.

Machine-readable, structured data play a crucial role for search engines. Thanks to standardised markup (schema.org), it is possible for machines to understand them directly.

Schema.org can be understood as a language for data. When these schemas are used by all providers, data can be linked to each other.

For hotels, for example, this means that basic information such as the address, geo-coordinates, number of rooms or star rating is available in a predefined structure. No matter whether the data is accessed via a search engine, Alexa or a digital information display – the machine understands the content and can output it independently of the application.

Leipzig Tourism and Marketing has already transferred a large share of tourism and convention data to the statewide data hub (SaTourN) and made it available under Open Data licences.

From there, the data is integrated into the Knowledge Graph of German tourism (DZT) as well as the subgraph for business tourism (GCB). There, it is widely accessible and available for reuse within a modern data architecture.

Here you can check whether your organisation is already digitally equipped:

DZT Knowledge Graph