Terms
How you may use what's on this site. In short: the data is free with credit for non-commercial use and for news reporting (data license); commercial use needs a license; the code, writing and design are all rights reserved (site terms).
Terms for Data Centers Near You
Copyright (c) 2026 William McNulty. Effective October 4, 2026.
"Data Centers Near You" means this repository and the website at https://datacentersnearyou.org/ (formerly https://willmcnulty.github.io/Virginia-Data-Center-Tracker/, and any later address of the project). They contain five kinds of material, each under different terms:
- Data: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, with extra permissions, and a commercial license on request. See DATA-LICENSE.md.
- Code: all rights reserved; shown so it can be checked.
- Writing, images and design: all rights reserved.
- The name and logo: not licensed.
- Third-party material: its own terms, listed below.
Anything not clearly in groups 1, 4 or 5 is in group 2 or 3.
1. Data
The datasets this project publishes (the CSV files on the /data/ page, the JSON files under /virginia/data/, and the same data as shown on the map and pages) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license, with the extra permissions and the exclusions in DATA-LICENSE.md. Commercial licenses are available: https://willmcnulty.github.io/#contact
2. Code
Copyright (c) 2026 William McNulty. All rights reserved.
The source code (including build.py, everything in pipeline/, the site's JavaScript, HTML templates and stylesheets, and the tests) is shown so that anyone can check how the published data is produced. Showing it is not a license to use it.
You may read the code, and run it on your own computer only to check or reproduce the published data. Without prior written permission you may not copy, modify, distribute, sublicense or sell it, in whole or in part; publish or host it or anything built from it; or use it to run a website, app, API, dataset or other product or service.
Under GitHub's Terms of Service, GitHub users may view and fork a public repository on GitHub. That is the only additional right granted, and only while this repository is public.
3. Writing, images and design
All rights reserved. This covers the site's page text, explainers, methodology, FAQs, social media posts, link-preview images, and the site's visual design. You may quote short passages with credit and a link, as fair use allows. The facts reported in them aren't ours to restrict; check them against the official records each page links to.
Sharing a link to any page is always fine; social networks will show its preview image.
4. Name and logo
These terms don't grant any right to use the name "Data Centers Near You" or the site's logo, except to credit the data as DATA-LICENSE.md requires. Don't use them in a way that suggests this project endorses, sponsors or is affiliated with you, your product, or any position on any data center.
5. Third-party material
These aren't ours and keep their own terms:
- MapLibre GL JS (site/vendor/): BSD-3-Clause, (c) MapLibre contributors; see site/vendor/LICENSE.
- DejaVu Sans fonts (pipeline/fonts/): Bitstream Vera and Arev font licenses, DejaVu changes in the public domain; see pipeline/fonts/LICENSE_DEJAVU.
- Map tiles (loaded from OpenFreeMap, not stored here): (c) OpenMapTiles, data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, under the Open Database License.
- The public records the data is compiled from: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, county governments, the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. Each publisher's own terms and notices apply to its records, and nothing here limits anyone from getting those records from their publishers.
No warranty
Everything here is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, completeness, timeliness or fitness for a particular purpose. To the extent the law allows, William McNulty is not liable for any damages arising from its use. Nothing here is legal, financial, medical or real estate advice. Check important facts against the official record each item links to.
Changes
These terms may be updated. Each version is dated, and a change applies only to material published after it, never to copies already received under an earlier version.
Data license
Data Centers Near You · Copyright (c) 2026 William McNulty · Effective October 4, 2026
In short
- Free with credit, for non-commercial use, under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. If you share a changed version of the data, share it under the same license.
- News reporting is allowed even in commercial publications (ads, subscriptions), with credit. See "Extra permissions" below.
- Embedding the map with the official embed code is allowed on any website.
- Everything else commercial needs a license (contact: https://willmcnulty.github.io/#contact). That includes reselling the data, putting it in a product, app, API or database, or using it to run a similar service.
- The public records themselves aren't ours. Anyone can get them from Virginia DEQ, the counties, NCES and the Census Bureau. This license covers our compilation and what we add to it.
This summary isn't the license; the sections below and the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 legal code are.
1. What this license covers
"The Data" means the datasets published by Data Centers Near You:
- the CSV files on the /data/ page;
- the JSON files under https://datacentersnearyou.org/virginia/data/ (facilities.json, changes.json, filings.json, meetings.json when published, schools.json, zips.json, meta.json);
- the same information as shown on the site's map and pages.
It includes what this project adds: the selection and arrangement of the records, the joining of air permits to sites, stages and localities as assigned here, distances, the change log, cleaned and grouped county filings, and any classification or score this project produces.
2. What it doesn't cover
- The underlying public records, and text copied from them word for word, such as DEQ facility names and addresses, county filing descriptions and plan names, and meeting agenda text. They belong to their publishers and keep their publishers' terms. As of October 4, 2026:
- Virginia DEQ's Terms of Use say its GIS information "is in the public domain and may be copied without permission".
- Loudoun County's GIS disclaimer limits the county's liability and sets no reuse restriction.
- Data from NCES and the U.S. Census Bureau is a work of the U.S. government and not subject to U.S. copyright.
- Map tiles (OpenFreeMap / OpenMapTiles / OpenStreetMap), which have their own license.
- The site's code, writing, images, design, name and logo: see LICENSE.md.
Nothing in this license limits what you may do with records you get from their publishers yourself.
3. License
The Data is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license ("CC BY-NC-SA 4.0"): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode
4. How to credit
Credit is required. Use, as fully as the medium allows:
Data: Data Centers Near You (https://datacentersnearyou.org), compiled from Virginia DEQ and county records. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
On a chart, map or broadcast graphic, the short form is enough, with the link wherever links work:
Data: Data Centers Near You
Say if you changed the data (for example "filtered to Loudoun County"). Don't suggest that this project endorses you or your conclusions.
5. Extra permissions
These are granted by William McNulty in addition to CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, not instead of it (what Creative Commons calls "CC+"), with the same credit required.
5.1 News reporting
News organizations and journalists (including freelancers, student media, broadcasters, newsletters and documentary makers) may use the Data in news reporting and commentary (articles, charts, maps, graphics, broadcasts, newsletters and their archives), including in publications that earn money from advertising, subscriptions or sponsorship.
Graphics and findings made under this permission don't have to be released under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
This permission does not cover:
- publishing the Data files themselves, or a substantial part of the Data, as a download or database;
- selling, licensing or otherwise providing the Data to others;
- using the Data in a product, app, API, database, alert service or other service, except a news article's own interactive graphic.
5.2 Embedding the map
Anyone may embed the site's map on any website, including commercial ones, using the embed code from the /data/ page, as long as the "Data Centers Near You" credit link stays visible and the embed isn't altered or presented in a way that suggests endorsement.
5.3 Government, education and research
Government agencies, schools, universities, libraries and non-profit researchers may use the Data in their public work, including official reports, testimony and teaching, with credit.
6. Commercial licenses
Any other commercial use needs a separate written license. Examples: consulting and market research, real estate, site selection, data center or utility industry use, data brokerage, resale, products and APIs, alert or monitoring services, and building training datasets for commercial AI models. Contact: https://willmcnulty.github.io/#contact.
7. No warranty
The Data is provided "as is". It may contain errors, gaps or out-of-date information, including errors in the underlying public records. It is for reference only, is not a legal description of any property, and should not be relied on for legal, financial, medical, real estate or safety decisions. Check important facts against the official record each row links to. To the extent the law allows, William McNulty is not liable for any damages arising from use of the Data. (This matches section 5 of CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.)
8. Requests
These aren't conditions of the license, just requests:
- Don't use the Data to identify or contact private individuals. (It contains no personal data, and Virginia DEQ's terms ask users not to derive personal information from its data.)
- Report errors so they can be fixed for everyone: https://willmcnulty.github.io/#contact.
- Link to the page for the place or site you mention, so readers can check it.
9. Earlier versions
Before October 4, 2026, the /data/ page said the files could be reused, republished and adapted with attribution. Copies obtained before October 4, 2026 may continue to be used on those terms. This license applies to Data obtained on or after that date.
10. Changes
This license may be updated. Each version is dated. A change never applies to Data already obtained under an earlier version.