Is it okay to use data (for machine learning purposes) that specify that they can only be used for "research-only" purposes (or "non-commercial") in an open source product?
If so, is it okay to take donations from my open source product, or would that be considered as a "commercial" purpose?
For example: using face recognition "research-only" data for an open source face recognition model.
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Given the details you give in comments, we can consider that your software would most likely be a derivative of the original research-only / non-commercial data.
Then the question is what the license has to say about derivatives? Does it even allow them? If it does not explicitly allow them, you are most likely not authorized from publishing any software based on this data, under any license.
If derivatives are allowed, under what conditions? In the case of a CC-BY-SA-NC license, you would have to keep the license for any derivative that you distribute, and this is not an open source license. But it could also be more lax, in which case maybe an open source license would be allowed.
In conclusion: it all boils down to exactly what is written about derivative works in the license.
Most likely you may not use the data. Open Source software explicitly allows usage of the software for ANY purpose(including commercial, do not mistake it for closed software). To give others a right to use something for any purpose, you have to have this right in the first place.
The "only for research" clause explicitly restricts your usage to only research use, not for all purpose. Thus, almost certainly you may not use it in an Open Source project.
A separate issue is if the license gave you the right to use the data for any purpose. Even then I am not sure if it would also allow for modification and redistribution (keep in mind GPL has all of these activities mentioned)
