Table 1 Examples of statements about re-use of names, nomenclatural, and/or taxonomic content

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Algaebase, taxonomic information about algae [20]. “The images, information and data on this site are not in the public domain and are the property of the copyright owners. The data may not be downloaded or replicated by any means, manually or mechanically, including copying and pasting into theses, papers and other publications, and extraction by any means, manually or electronically. Any copying of the data or images, be it commercial or non-commercial (including non-profit), educational or non-educational, without the written permission of the copyright owner and payment, if requested, may result in legal action, including legal action involving the service provider or publisher.

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The BioSystematic Database of World Diptera[21]. “The BDWD operates under US Law, especially the fair-use provisions of the Copyright Law. As the major supporter of the project is an US Government agency, the BDWD is without copyright”.

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Catalogue of Life, a taxonomic compilation [22]. “This online database is copyrighted by Species 2000 on behalf of the Catalogue of Life partners. Use of the content (such as the classification, synonymic species checklist, and scientific names) for publications and databases by individuals and organizations for not-for-profit usage is encouraged, on condition that full and precise credit is given at three levels on all occasions that records are shown”.

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Index Fungorum, Nomenclator of fungal names, [23]. “The custodians, either collectively or individually, claim no IPR over the compilation, which correctly reside with the many contributors, including the custodians”.

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IPNI, A botanical nomenclator [24]. “This database and its contents are © copyright the Plant Names Project. All rights reserved”. but also “Copies, including electronic, may be made of the data held within this database for your own use or for use within your organisation”.

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The Plant List[25]. “This online database is copyrighted by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden on behalf of The Plant List (TPL) and its contributors. The Plant List by Missouri Botanical Gardens and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, on behalf of The Plant List and its contributors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Use of the content (such as the classification, synonymised species checklist, and scientific names) for publications and databases by individuals and organizations for not-for-profit usage is encouraged, on condition that full and precise credit is given to The Plant List and the conditions of the Creative Commons Licence are observed”. The no-derivative component of the license has been criticized by Page [26] and Heim [27] because “An ND license renders a dataset useless”. At the time of writing, the licensing of the Plant List is being changed.

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Thomson Reuters Index of Organism Names[28]. “All content provided on this site is owned by or licensed to Thomson Reuters and/or its affiliates (the “Thomson Reuters Content”) and protected by United States and international copyright laws. Thomson Reuters and its licensors retain all proprietary rights to the Thomson Reuters Content. The Thomson Reuters Content may not be reproduced, transmitted or distributed without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters”.

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WORMS World Registry of Marine Species[29]. “Unless otherwise stated, these web pages and associated information are free to use on condition that they are cited (CC-BY). A recommended citation style is provided on each page. We do not permit the re-distribution of the entire database unless by prior written agreement”.