Data licensing
Every source in the Kortex graph carries an explicit commercial status — stated here, on the source register, and in the provenance envelope of API responses. Where rights are not yet confirmed, the status says so. We would rather show an honest “under review” than an implied “cleared”.
Production-safe today
69 of 89 exposed sources are production-safe today — their licence question is settled (cleared, derived-only, or licence held) and you can build commercial products on query results drawn from them, subject only to the stated attribution conditions. The remaining 20 sources are under review and are not production-safe until their status changes here.
Policy: raw records from under-review or excluded sources are not served on anonymous public surfaces (the Global Viewer demo layers, homepage demo queries, and static downloads). Enforced 2026-07-03: live vessel (AIS) and aircraft (ADS-B) feeds are key-gated pending the provider-rights audit, and the nuclear-reactor, cable-landing and volcano map layers were withdrawn — each action is recorded in the source notes below. Keyed API responses identify every source they touched in the provenance envelope, so a query that used an under-review source says so explicitly.
Status definitions
cleared
The source licence permits commercial use and redistribution. Any conditions (attribution, share-alike) are stated in the notes and honoured in Kortex’s response provenance.
under review
Redistribution rights not yet confirmed for commercial use. The data remains in the register; the note states what is exposed today and what is being resolved.
derived only
By policy, no raw records from this source are served. Only Kortex-derived indicators computed from it appear on any surface, and the source licence permits that derived use.
licence held
Kortex holds a commercial licence from the publisher covering this use.
excluded
Ingested for internal evaluation only. Not exposed through the API, the graph, or any commercial surface.
The matrix
cleared: 69
under review: 20
derived only: 0
licence held: 0
excluded: 9
total sources: 98
| Source | Licence | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADB Projects | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| AidData | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| AIS vessel positions | AIS provider terms | under review | AIS provider terms; vessel-derived layers under rights audit. |
| Atlas of Economic Complexity | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| Bready economy assessments | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | World Bank B-READY data, CC BY 4.0. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| CAIDA IODA Internet Outages | None published | excluded | IODA publishes no data licence (verified 2026-07-02). Not exposed on any commercial surface; internal evaluation only. |
| Cambridge CBECI | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| CISA ICS Advisories | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| Climate TRACE | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| Copernicus CAMS | Copernicus open licence | cleared | Copernicus licence — free use including commercial, with attribution. |
| Correlates of War | COW terms (non-commercial, no redistribution) | excluded | COW terms prohibit commercial use and redistribution (verified 2026-07-02). Not exposed on any commercial surface; internal evaluation only. |
| EBRD Projects | EBRD website terms (non-commercial) | excluded | EBRD site terms are personal/non-commercial (verified 2026-07-02). Not exposed on any commercial surface; internal evaluation only. |
| ECMWF ERA5 | Copernicus open licence | cleared | Copernicus licence — free use including commercial, with attribution. |
| Ember | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| Endangered Languages Project | ELP terms (non-commercial) | excluded | ELP terms are non-commercial (verified 2026-07-02). Not exposed on any commercial surface; internal evaluation only. |
| ENTSO-E Transparency Platform | ENTSO-E Transparency licence | cleared | ENTSO-E Transparency Platform legal notice permits reuse with source acknowledgment. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| ERT (Episodes of Regime Transformation) | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| Fragile States Index | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | under review | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (verified 2026-07-02). FSI scores are exposed on Jurisdiction records; resolving via publisher permission or derived-only posture. |
| FRED (St. Louis Fed) | FRED API terms | under review | FRED terms permit use; redistribution of certain third-party series is restricted — series-level audit pending. |
| Freedom House | CC BY-NC 4.0 | under review | CC BY-NC — one country-year score currently exposed on Jurisdiction records; resolving via publisher permission or a derived-only posture. |
| GEBCO | Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| geoBoundaries | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| GeoNames | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| GLEIF | CC0 | cleared | CC0 — no restrictions. |
| Global Dam Watch | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | Global Dam Watch database is distributed CC BY 4.0 (publisher site + Scientific Data descriptor, verified 2026-07-02). Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| Global Energy Monitor | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| GRanD (Global Reservoir and Dam DB) | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| Henley Passport Index | Henley & Partners terms (proprietary) | under review | Henley & Partners terms require a licence for commercial use (verified 2026-07-02). Openness scores are exposed on Jurisdiction records; removal or replacement under evaluation. |
| HIFLD (Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data) | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| Hofstede Insights | Hofstede terms (research free; commercial requires permission) | under review | Free for research; commercial use requires permission from Geert Hofstede BV (verified 2026-07-02). Dimension scores are exposed on Jurisdiction records; permission being resolved. |
| Hyperscaler datacentre registry | Kortex-curated (public announcements) | cleared | Kortex-curated register compiled from operators' public announcements; first-party compilation. |
| IAEA NFCIS | IAEA terms | under review | IAEA Nucleus terms permit use in commercial products with acknowledgment; confirming no database-specific restriction applies to this registry. |
| IAEA PRIS | IAEA terms (educational/research use) | under review | IAEA Nucleus terms permit use in commercial products with acknowledgment; confirming no database-specific restriction applies to this registry. |
| IAEA Research Reactor DB | IAEA terms | under review | IAEA Nucleus terms permit use in commercial products with acknowledgment; confirming no database-specific restriction applies to this registry. |
| ICIJ Offshore Leaks | ODbL | cleared | ODbL — commercial use permitted; attribution required and share-alike applies to derivative databases. Query results are served as produced works with attribution (© OpenStreetMap contributors for OSM-derived layers). |
| IMF Data | IMF open data | cleared | IMF open data terms; used with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| IRENA | IRENA open data | cleared | Published as IRENA open data; used with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| ITU ICT statistics | ITU terms | under review | ITU data terms; redistribution scope unconfirmed. |
| Kortex country crosswalk | derived | cleared | First-party Kortex derivation. |
| Kortex derived analytics | derived | cleared | First-party Kortex derivation. |
| Kortex internal staging | internal | cleared | First-party Kortex derivation. |
| Kortex raster tile cache | derived | cleared | First-party Kortex derivation. |
| Kortex TSO aggregator | derived | under review | First-party aggregation over 53 TSO feeds; per-feed redistribution terms are tracked individually (ENTSO-E cleared; remaining feeds under audit). |
| Kortex Voronoi tessellations | derived | cleared | First-party Kortex derivation. |
| Kummu et al. gridded GDP & HDI | CC0 | cleared | CC0 — no restrictions. |
| LBNL Berkeley Interconnection Queue | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| Marine Regions EEZ | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| Meta Relative Wealth Index | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| Microsoft Global Building Footprints | ODbL | cleared | ODbL — commercial use permitted; attribution required and share-alike applies to derivative databases. Query results are served as produced works with attribution (© OpenStreetMap contributors for OSM-derived layers). |
| MITRE ATT&CK for ICS | MITRE ATT&CK Terms of Use (royalty-free, attribution) | cleared | MITRE ATT&CK Terms of Use grant a royalty-free licence for research, development and commercial purposes with the MITRE copyright notice reproduced (verified 2026-07-02). Currently internal-only. |
| NASA FIRMS | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| NASA GRACE-FO | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| NASA POWER | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| Natural Earth coastline | Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| NESO (National Energy System Operator, UK) | NESO terms | cleared | NESO Open Data Portal licence permits commercial use with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| NIST National Vulnerability Database | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| NOAA IBTrACS | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| OECD-NEA UDEPO | IAEA Nucleus Terms (attribution) | under review | IAEA database (UThDEPO). IAEA Nucleus terms permit use in commercial products with acknowledgment (verified 2026-07-02); confirming no database-specific restriction applies. |
| OpenAQ | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| OpenFlights | ODbL | cleared | ODbL — commercial use permitted; attribution required and share-alike applies to derivative databases. Query results are served as produced works with attribution (© OpenStreetMap contributors for OSM-derived layers). |
| OpenInfraMap | ODbL | cleared | ODbL — commercial use permitted; attribution required and share-alike applies to derivative databases. Query results are served as produced works with attribution (© OpenStreetMap contributors for OSM-derived layers). |
| OpenSanctions | CC BY-NC 4.0 (commercial licence available) | under review | No raw records are served — OpenSanctions feeds internal analytics only. Publisher offers a commercial licence, which is the planned route (verified 2026-07-02). |
| OurAirports | Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| Packet Clearing House IXP directory | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 | under review | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (publisher-stated, verified 2026-07-02). Only per-country counts are exposed; NC clause being resolved with publisher. |
| PeeringDB | CC BY-SA 4.0 | cleared | CC BY-SA 4.0 — commercial use permitted; attribution and share-alike on adaptations. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| PJM Interconnection | PJM terms (manual CSV access) | under review | PJM data terms; redistribution scope unconfirmed. |
| RE100 Members | Climate Group terms (proprietary) | excluded | Climate Group site terms require a licence for commercial use (verified 2026-07-02). Members list not exposed on any commercial surface; internal evaluation only. |
| SEC EDGAR | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| Sentinel-5P TROPOMI | Copernicus open licence | cleared | Copernicus licence — free use including commercial, with attribution. |
| SIPRI Military Expenditure | SIPRI terms (commercial use requires authorisation) | under review | SIPRI terms require advance authorisation (normally a royalty) for commercial use (verified 2026-07-02). Country military-expenditure values are exposed on Jurisdiction records; pursuing authorisation or replacement with derived classes. |
| Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program | Smithsonian terms (non-commercial; PD nuance noted) | excluded | GVP site terms are non-commercial (verified 2026-07-02; underlying compilation is US federal work — public-domain status noted, may be cleared later). Not exposed on any commercial surface. |
| Southern Company Wholesale | Southern Company website terms (proprietary) | excluded | Southern Company site terms restrict reuse (verified 2026-07-02). Prices retained for internal calibration only; never served, and feed no downstream product. |
| TeleGeography Submarine Cable Map | CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (historic; current terms unconfirmed) | under review | Cable geometries are currently in the graph. Historic publication was CC BY-NC-SA 3.0; current terms could not be confirmed on live pages (2026-07-02). Seeking publisher licence or alternative source. |
| Transparency International CPI | CC BY-ND 4.0 | under review | CC BY-ND — redistribution with attribution permitted; the NoDerivatives clause is under review for Kortex-derived composite scores. |
| UCDP / PRIO | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| UN Comtrade | UN Comtrade terms | under review | Bulk redistribution requires a UN Comtrade licence; evaluating derived-only posture. |
| UN General Assembly voting (Voeten) | CC0 | cleared | CC0 — no restrictions. |
| UN World Population Prospects | CC BY 3.0 IGO | cleared | CC BY 3.0 IGO — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. |
| UNDP Human Development Index | CC BY 3.0 IGO | cleared | CC BY 3.0 IGO — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution (hdr.undp.org terms, verified 2026-07-02). |
| UNESCO World Heritage | UNESCO WHC syndication terms (permission required) | excluded | UNESCO WHC syndication requires written permission (verified 2026-07-02). Not exposed on any commercial surface; internal evaluation only. |
| US CBECS | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| US Census TIGER | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| US EIA | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| USGS Earthquake Catalog | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| USGS Mineral Resources Data System | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| V-Dem & V-Party | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| VIIRS Night-time Lights | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| WALS (World Atlas of Language Structures) | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| WHO data | WHO terms | under review | WHO data terms restrict commercial redistribution; evaluating derived-only posture. |
| World Bank Carbon Pricing Dashboard | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| World Bank PPI Database | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| World Bank Projects & Operations | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| World Bank WDI | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| World Bank WGI | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| World Database on Protected Areas | UNEP-WCMC Protected Planet terms (non-commercial, no redistribution) | excluded | Protected Planet terms prohibit commercial use and redistribution without UNEP-WCMC permission (verified 2026-07-02). Not exposed on any commercial surface; internal evaluation only. |
| World Port Index (NGA) | US Public Domain | cleared | Public domain — no restrictions. |
| WRI Aqueduct | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
| WRI Global Power Plant Database | CC BY 4.0 | cleared | CC BY 4.0 — commercial use and redistribution permitted with attribution. Attribution carried on /sources, /licensing and in response provenance. |
Attribution
Kortex is built on the work of the open-data community. Sources licensed CC BY, CC BY-SA, or ODbL are credited on every surface where their data appears: the source register, per-entity provenance via /v2/provenance, and the provenance.sources block of API responses. OpenStreetMap-derived layers (via OpenInfraMap) are © OpenStreetMap contributors, under ODbL.
Questions
If you are a data publisher and want to discuss how your data is represented here — or a customer with a licensing question your procurement team needs answered — write to kortex@orkora.com. Corrections are applied to the register directly and propagate to every surface within the hour.