RULE: Every Candid data product carries source attribution per the [[attribution-checklist-by-source]]. Mis-attribution terminates the licence.

Rule: Every Candid Creative-built data product (public dashboard, calculator, downloadable report, embedded widget) carries source attribution per the licence terms of the data it uses. Missing or wrong attribution automatically terminates the licence.

Why:

• OGL-Canada, OGL-Ontario, OECD CC BY 4.0, Eurostat, World Bank, ECCC MSC End-use Licence, UK OGL v3 — every major open-data licence requires attribution; failure to comply terminates the licence (OGL-Canada v2.0: worldwide royalty-free perpetual licence for commercial use, Statistics Canada Open Licence: explicitly permits "use, reproduce, publish, freely distribute, or sell value-added products", ECCC/MSC Open Data: free anonymous access to weather/climate/water via OGC-compliant GeoMet APIs, International open-data licences (2026): UK OGL v3, OECD CC BY 4.0, Eurostat, World Bank)
• Attribution is the trust signal AI engines look for — see Profound (Aug 2024-Jun 2025, 680M citations): only 11% domain overlap between ChatGPT and Perplexity; 13.7% between AI Overviews and AI Mode — a clean methodology page with named sources and verifiable retrieval dates is exactly what gets cited
• Mis-attribution risks: (a) accusation of implying government endorsement (explicitly prohibited), (b) loss of the licence, (c) reputational damage to the client

How to apply:

• Every page: a "Sources" section with the required attribution string per Reference: compliance-grade attribution checklist by open-data source
• Every chart: source line beneath the chart in the format the licence demands (StatCan format is the strictest reference)
• Every downloaded CSV: includes a _SOURCES.txt file with the attribution strings + retrieval dates
• Never: use government crests, logos, or visual identifiers; never suggest endorsement; never republish under a Candid-only copyright notice
• For mixed-licence dashboards (e.g., StatCan + EIA + MSC on one page), attribute each source separately under the chart that uses it