Chriswaterguy: based on my own work at http://www.appropedia.org/Open_licenses

2010-02-23T11:59:50Z

based on my own work at http://www.appropedia.org/Open_licenses

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An '''open license''' or '''free license''' (licence in Commonwealth English) is the legal statement that allows [[free content]] and [[free software]] to be "free". This means "free" as in "freedom of speech" or "free to use it how you want". See the [http://freedomdefined.org/Definition Freedom Defined] wiki for more information.

The exact meaning may vary, but a common idea of an open license is one that requires [[attribution]] but otherwise lets people use the content in any way, including commercially, only requiring them to share their modifications under the same license ([[copyleft]]/[[ShareAlike]]). This corresponds to [[CC-BY-SA]] or [[GFDL]].

== Conditions ==
In more detail, the main point of an open license is to tell people that they are free to use the content, under relatively few conditions:
* The most common condition is [[attribution]] - all CC licenses contain this. The [[public domain]] tools [[CC0]] (CC Zero) and [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain public domain certification] do not, but they are declarations and not licenses.
* The next most common condition is [[Share Alike]] - that you will share, as long as the final product is also shared in the same way.

== Non-commercial licenses - not "free" ==

Another popular clause is the [[non-commercial clause]] (NC in [[Creative Commons]] licenses).

However, content with this license is not considered "free" by Freedom Defined (the free cultural works definition), or the [http://opendefinition.org/ Open Knowledge Definition] and is not able to be used in a site such as Appropedia which uses a license allowing commercial use.

This may be a wise choice for personal photos, or in some cases for creative work that you may wish to make a profit from.

== List of licenses ==
There are many free licenses, but the most common are:
* [[GFDL]]
* [[CC-BY-SA]] - Creative Commons, By Attribution, Share Alike
* [[CC-BY]] - Creative Commons, By Attribution.
* [[Public domain]] - not actually a license, this is the absence of any copyrights, license, or restriction of any kind.

(See also the [http://opendefinition.org/licenses list of licenses at opendefinition.org].)

== Interwiki links ==
* [[CC:Attribution]]

== Notes ==
<small><references/></small>

== External links ==

* [http://www.appropedia.org/Open_licenses Open licenses] on Appropedia.org (the initial basis for this article)
* [http://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Make_your_content_free Appropedia: Make your content free]
* [http://www.appropedia.org/Appropedia:Which_free_license_should_you_use%3F Appropedia: Which free license should you use?]
* [http://www.appropedia.org/An_Introduction_to_Creative_Commons Appropedia: An Introduction to Creative Commons]

[[Category:Free licenses]]
[[Category:Licenses]]

Open license - Revision history

Chriswaterguy: based on my own work at http://www.appropedia.org/Open_licenses