AIS data license

1. Definitions

Open AIS Data means AIS messages and vessel data obtained from Open AIS, including raw NMEA, decoded records, current or historical positions, tracks, API responses, and equivalent data in any format. The aggregate stream is one way this data is supplied. A Data Provider is a contributor authorized to supply the receiver feed or other source contribution concerned.

A Restricted Data Service is a service other than Open AIS itself whose principal purpose is supplying raw AIS messages, vessel positions, or vessel tracks to others, or providing stand-alone vessel-position lookup or tracking. This includes feeds, broadcasts, APIs, downloads, databases, and stand-alone tracking websites or applications. A Derived Product augments or includes vessel data in a product that adds independent functionality or substantive analysis and whose primary purpose differs from raw-data supply or vessel tracking. Reformatting, filtering, or plotting positions alone does not make a Restricted Data Service a Derived Product.

2. License grant

While you comply with these terms, Open AIS grants you a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive right to receive, copy, store, process, analyze, and combine Open AIS Data, and to use it in Derived Products. Commercial and non-commercial use are both allowed without attribution. The software you use with the data does not have to be open source. This grant does not authorize the restricted uses in section 4 without both permissions required by section 5.

3. Permitted products

You may augment or enrich your products with Open AIS Data, combine it with other information, and include vessel positions or tracks in products whose primary purpose differs from supplying raw data or vessel tracking. Commercial and non-commercial products are both allowed. Examples include port operations, logistics and arrival planning, environmental monitoring, risk assessment, research, statistics, models, and value-added analytics.

Maps, vessel positions, tracks, dashboards, and alerts may be supporting features in those products. Including such a feature does not by itself turn your product into a Restricted Data Service, and does not require the additional sharing permissions in section 5. The product must provide genuinely independent functionality or analysis rather than simply repackage a raw-data or vessel-tracking service.

You may provide result-focused API responses for that independent functionality or analysis, such as traffic statistics or operational alerts. This does not permit a stand-alone vessel-position lookup API, a raw-data export service, or another way of supplying the underlying AIS records, positions, or tracks as a Restricted Data Service, even for a single vessel.

4. Restricted data services and rebroadcasting

Unless both permissions in section 5 are in place, you must not use Open AIS Data to operate a Restricted Data Service, rebroadcast raw AIS data to others, or relay, mirror, resell, sublicense, or otherwise supply Open AIS Data to another AIS aggregation, data-sharing, vessel-position, or vessel-tracking service for those purposes.

This restriction applies to any amount of Open AIS Data, including individual-vessel lookups and repeated small requests, whether free or paid, public or private, and supplied directly or through an intermediary. It covers live and historical data after decoding, protocol conversion, normalization, delay, caching, geographic or vessel filtering, or combination with other sources. Changing the format or adding a map does not remove the restriction. The permitted application displays and analytics in section 3 remain allowed.

5. Written permission and provider opt-in

A restricted use is allowed only when both of the following have been obtained before it begins:

1. Prior written permission from Open AIS, identifying the approved recipient, use, data scope, and any duration or other conditions.
2. Explicit, affirmative opt-in from every Data Provider whose contributions will be used, covering that recipient, use, and data scope. Open AIS must record and verify those opt-ins.

Neither approval alone is sufficient. Open AIS cannot waive a provider’s opt-in, and a provider’s opt-in does not replace Open AIS’s written permission. Only contributions covered by both approvals may be supplied. Records assembled from multiple providers must use only authorized contributions; exclude data whose source permissions cannot be verified. An approval does not authorize further onward sharing beyond its stated scope or override applicable third-party source terms.

Station creation includes a separate data-sharing choice. The option to allow sharing that station’s AIS feed with aisstream.io is selected by default; uncheck it before creating the station if you do not want to allow that sharing. Submitting the form records your recipient-specific sharing preference, which you can change in your station’s sharing settings. Preselection alone, merely transmitting data, public station listing, accepting general terms, or silence does not grant permission for additional sharing. Other downstream services require their own recorded opt-in. Existing stations are not automatically opted in.

A saved sharing preference does not mean forwarding is active or that Open AIS has given the separate written approval. Open AIS must verify the applicable permissions and data scope before any exceptional sharing begins.

A provider may withdraw its opt-in for future sharing by removing a recipient in station sharing settings or notifying Open AIS at the email address below. Open AIS must stop new exceptional sharing of the affected contributions and promptly notify approved recipients. Once notified, those recipients must stop further supply, including from their caches. Withdrawal does not undo transfers completed while authorized; any continued retention or use of those previously delivered copies remains subject to the written approval and these terms. When either required approval expires or no longer covers a use, that use must stop.

To request permission or discuss provider opt-in, email [email protected]. A request, an unanswered email, or technical access to data is not approval.

6. Your receiver feed remains yours

This license does not restrict the original AIS feed produced by your receiver. You may continue sending your own feed directly to peer projects or other services, or use it however you choose. The restricted-use and permission requirements apply to data obtained from Open AIS, not to your independently collected receiver feed.

7. Access and credentials

Service access remains conditional on contribution eligibility and the published service rules. Do not share credentials, allowlisted access, or a connection with an unauthorized third party, and do not bypass technical access or rate controls. Technical access does not grant permission to operate a Restricted Data Service.

8. Optional attribution

Attribution is not required for commercial or non-commercial use of Open AIS Data, including public Derived Products. You may credit Open AIS and its contributors voluntarily. Attribution does not replace either permission required by section 5.

9. Contribution rights

By sending a receiver feed to Open AIS, you grant Open AIS a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free right to receive, validate, combine, store, process, and distribute that feed through its stream and vessel-data interfaces for uses permitted by this license. You confirm that you operate the receiver or otherwise have authority to grant those rights. Do not send scraped, stolen, synthetic, or third-party service data without permission.

This ordinary contribution grant authorizes Open AIS to operate its own network interfaces, but does not authorize exceptional sharing to other services for a Restricted Data Service. Open AIS must obtain your separate, recorded opt-in under section 5 before using your contributions for that purpose. Choosing not to opt in does not by itself affect your ordinary contributor access or permitted use of Open AIS Data.

10. Scope

These terms cover Open AIS Data and data explicitly supplied under this license. They do not cover the Open AIS software, account and session data, private receiver coordinates, operational logs, trademarks, map tiles, or third-party material carrying separate terms. They govern use of data obtained through Open AIS, do not claim exclusive ownership of individual vessel-position facts, and do not limit rights that applicable law does not allow to be excluded.

11. Reliability and navigation

Open AIS Data is provided as-is, without an uptime, completeness, accuracy, merchantability, or fitness guarantee. It may be delayed, incomplete, duplicated, or incorrect. Open AIS is not navigation equipment. Do not rely on the data for navigation, collision avoidance, distress response, or safety of life.

12. Termination

Your service access may be suspended or terminated for breach, abuse, loss of contribution eligibility, or risk to the service. Data you lawfully received may remain in your permitted Derived Products, subject to these terms. Termination does not grant or extend permission for a Restricted Data Service. Sections concerning restricted uses, written permission, provider opt-in and withdrawal, attribution, scope, reliability, and existing use survive termination.

13. Software license

The ingestion, processing, streaming, API, and web software will be published separately under BUSL-1.1. The Business Source License applies to software, not to data received from the stream. Read the software license →