Open Content - Definition

Definition

The OpenContent website once defined OpenContent as 'freely available for modification, use and redistribution under a license similar to those used by the Open Source / Free Software community'. However, such a definition would exclude the Open Content License (OPL) because that license forbade charging 'a fee for the itself', a right required by free and open source software licenses.

The term since shifted in meaning, and the OpenContent website now describes openness as a 'continuous construct'. The more copyright permissions are granted to the general public, the more open the content is. The threshold for open content is simply that the work 'is licensed in a manner that provides users with the right to make more kinds of uses than those normally permitted under the law - at no cost to the user.'

The 4Rs are put forward on the OpenContent website as a framework for assessing the extent to which content is open:

1. Reuse - the right to reuse the content in its unaltered / verbatim form (e.g., make a backup copy of the content)
2. Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
3. Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
4. Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

This broader definition distinguishes open content from open source software, since the latter must be available for commercial use and adaptation by the public. However, it is similar to several definitions for open educational resources, which include resources under noncommercial and verbatim licenses. The Open Definition, which purports to define open content and open knowledge, draws heavily on the Open Source Definition; it preserves the limited sense of open content as libre content.