CBDB Data Licensing Terms

CBDB Data Licensing Terms

These terms take effect on August 20, 2026. Which of the two sets of terms below applies to a given body of CBDB data depends on the release date of the current CBDB standalone database — the “standalone release date” — and on the volume of data that release contains. Both the date and the data volume are published on the Download CBDB Standalone Database page, and both are updated with each new release.

1. Data within the current standalone release

CBDB data published on or before the standalone release date, on any platform, and falling within the volume of data contained in the current standalone release, remains licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Under that license you may share and adapt the data for non-commercial purposes, provided that you give appropriate credit to CBDB and distribute any derivative work under the same license.

2. Data beyond the current standalone release

Data published after the standalone release date, or exceeding the volume of data contained in the current standalone release, on any platform, is made available under the following terms:

• Attribution. You must credit the China Biographical Database as the source of the data, and indicate the release you used.
• NonCommercial. You may not use the data for commercial purposes.
• NoDerivatives. You may not distribute modified, adapted or otherwise derived versions of the data.
• No Redistribution or Public Data Access Services. You may not distribute, make available, expose, or otherwise provide third-party access to the data, whether in original, modified, adapted, transformed or derived form. This prohibition includes, without limitation, using the data as the underlying data source for a publicly accessible website, application, API, database interface, query service, visualization service or other interactive service through which third parties can retrieve, view, query or otherwise access individual records or substantially similar representations of the data, whether or not the underlying data are available for download.

Nature of the terms in this section 2. The terms set out in this section 2 are an independent agreement, drawn up with reference to the attribution, non-commercial use and no-derivatives provisions of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. They are not the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license itself and have no legal relationship to its text.

Summary

Authorization and enforcement

Any use of the data that is not expressly permitted under section 1 or section 2 above requires prior written authorization. Any unauthorized use may constitute copyright infringement and may be pursued as such. Requests for authorization should be addressed to Hongsu Wang at hongsuwang [at] fas.harvard.edu.

CBDB 数据授权条款

本授权条款自 2026 年 8 月 20 日起生效。数据适用以下何种条款，取决于其发布时间与数据量是否在 CBDB 单机版数据库当前版本的范围之内，即以该版本的发布日期（下称「单机版发布日期」）及其所载数据量为界；该日期与数据量均公布于「CBDB 单机版下载」页面，并随每次新版发布而更新。

一、当前单机版范围内的数据

凡在单机版发布日期（含当日）之前、于任何平台发布，且在当前单机版所载数据量范围内的 CBDB 数据，仍适用《署名—非商业性使用—相同方式共享 4.0 国际公共许可协议》（CC BY-NC-SA 4.0）。据此，使用者在注明 CBDB 出处、并以相同协议发布衍生成果的前提下，可为非商业目的分享及演绎该等数据。

二、超出当前单机版范围的数据

凡在单机版发布日期之后发布，或超出当前单机版所载数据量范围的 CBDB 数据（不论发布平台），适用以下条款：

• 署名。使用时须注明数据来源为中国历代人物传记资料库（CBDB），并标明所使用的数据版本。
• 非商业使用。不得将数据用于商业目的。
• 禁止演绎。不得发布经修改、改编或以其他方式衍生的数据版本。
• 禁止再分发与公开数据访问服务。不得分发、提供、公开或以其他方式使第三方得以访问本数据，无论其为原始、修改、改编、转换或衍生形式。此项禁止包括但不限于：以本数据作为底层数据源，构建可公开访问的网站、应用程序、API、数据库接口、查询服务、可视化服务或其他交互式服务，使第三方得以检索、浏览、查询或以其他方式访问单条记录或与本数据实质相似之呈现，无论底层数据是否可供下载。

本节（第二项）条款之性质。本授权条款系参照 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 协议之署名、非商业使用、禁止演绎等事项独立约定，与 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 原文无法律关联。

对照表

授权与追责

凡未经上述第一项、第二项明确许可之数据使用，均须事先取得书面授权。未经授权之使用可能构成著作权侵权，并可据此追究法律责任。申请授权请与王宏甦联系：hongsuwang [at] fas.harvard.edu。