Open Content - Licenses

Licenses

According to the current definition of open content on the OpenContent website, any general, royalty-free copyright license would qualify as an open license because it 'provides users with the right to make more kinds of uses than those normally permitted under the law - at no cost to the user.'

However, the narrower definition used in the Open Definition effectively limits open content to libre content; any free content license would qualify as an open content license. According to this narrower criteria, the following still-maintained licenses qualify:

  • Creative Commons licenses (only Creative Commons Attribution, Attribution-Share Alike and Zero)
  • Open Publication License (the original license of the Open Content Project, the Open Content License, did not permit for-profit copying of the licensed work and therefore does not qualify)
  • Against DRM license
  • GNU Free Documentation License
  • Open Game License (a license designed for role-playing games by Wizards of the Coast)
  • Free Art License

Read more about this topic:  Open Content