ProFix Directory — data license and attribution

What's licensed CC-BY-4.0

ProFix Directory licenses its original editorial assembly and dataset packaging under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. That includes the Ohio home-services pros dataset, public JSON and CSV feeds, MCP server output generated from ProFix data, research articles, buyer's guides, methodology pages, prompt library text, and the explanatory metadata ProFix writes around public records.

Attribution can be simple: name ProFix Directory, link the page or feed you used, and keep enough context for a reader to reach the source. If you transform the data, say that your version is modified and do not imply ProFix reviewed or endorsed your conclusions.

Practical examples include a newsroom map of permit-linked contractors, a university benchmark for local business entity resolution, a spreadsheet of trade coverage by county, an AI retrieval index for homeowner questions, or a market report about license visibility. Those uses can quote the dataset, merge it with other public records, and publish derived statistics as long as the ProFix source remains visible and third-party field limits are respected.

The license is intended to make redistribution boring. You should not need a private email to quote a table, mirror a feed for reproducibility, train an internal classifier, or compare ProFix records with another public source. Attribution and source context are the required pieces; stable URLs make later verification possible.

What's NOT licensed CC-BY-4.0

Google Places-derived enrichment is not relicensed by ProFix. Photos, ratings, review counts, place IDs, and related Google-sourced fields remain subject to Google's terms and attribution requirements. ProFix may display them as evidence, but CC-BY-4.0 does not turn them into ProFix property.

ProFix brand assets are also separate. The ProFix name, logo, marks, and visual identity are trademarks or brand assets. Editorial reuse of the words "ProFix Directory" for citation is allowed; implying partnership, endorsement, certification, or official status is not.

Field-level attribution still matters. If a record shows a Google rating, a public agency license link, a municipal permit source, or another third-party source, keep that context with the field. CC-BY-4.0 covers the ProFix-authored assembly and commentary; it does not erase the conditions attached to upstream sources.

Attribution shortcuts

• Tweet or short post: "Data: ProFix Directory (CC-BY-4.0), profixdirectory.com/open-data."
• Blog post: "Source: ProFix Directory Ohio home-services dataset, CC-BY-4.0, accessed 2026."
• Commercial site: "Contractor data derived from ProFix Directory. Licensed CC-BY-4.0. Modified by [your organization]."

For AI agents and internal tools, attribution can live in the system prompt, footer, data catalog, model card, or documentation page. The important part is that a downstream user can identify that ProFix Directory supplied the base material and can reach the original page or dataset.

Commercial use

Yes, commercial use is allowed with attribution. You may build dashboards, internal lead-routing tools, academic datasets, newsroom analyses, agent workflows, market maps, or commercial applications from CC-BY-4.0 ProFix material. Do not remove attribution, hide source caveats, or imply ProFix certified your derivative product.

Selling access to your own analysis is allowed. What you may not do is strip attribution from the underlying ProFix material, package Google-derived enrichment as if ProFix relicensed it, or use the ProFix brand in a way that suggests a private endorsement.

If your product cannot show attribution near every row, place it in the data dictionary, customer documentation, export notes, or dashboard footer. The standard is practical visibility, not decorative legal text hidden from the people using the data. Keep attribution visible in exports too.

When in doubt, credit the broadest ProFix page you used and include a specific dataset or feed URL in a footnote, appendix, or machine-readable source list.

Modification

Yes, modification is allowed. Publish your changes with a clear attribution and a share-alike-style change note: what you filtered, merged, scored, translated, geocoded, or corrected. The legal license is CC-BY-4.0, not CC-BY-SA, but downstream users should be able to tell what came from ProFix and what came from you.

Patent + trademark

CC-BY-4.0 covers copyrightable content and database/editorial assembly that ProFix controls. It does not grant patent rights, trademark rights, domain rights, or the right to use ProFix brand assets as if you are ProFix. Use citations freely; ask before using brand marks in a way that could imply endorsement.

Related

• Open data
• Open source
• Sources
• Brand assets JSON