Open content

Definition

“Open content, coined by analogy with "open source" describes any kind of creative work including articles, pictures, audio, and video that is published in a format that explicitly allows the copying of the information” (Wikipedia, retrieved 17:28, 10 July 2006 (MEST))

The copyright principle

Almost everthing written down is coprighted. This includes of course any content you can access on the Internet. Therefore, free access does not mean free to reproduce in any form.

Copyright concerns all every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression and doesn't allow reproduction or any sort of adaption or transformation for a long time.

Only when terms expire, the work is released to the public domain (e.g. free to used). In most countries this is the case when:

The work was created and first published before January 1, 1923, or at least 95 years before January 1 of the current year, whichever is later;
The last surviving author of a work died at least 50 years ago. However, there are a few exceptions, e.g.
- If the author is unkown or if its an audiovisual work, it's 50 years after its first publication;
- This delay is shortened to 25 years for applied arts and photographic works, if it was not officially released
No Berne Convention signatory has passed a perpetual copyright on the work.

Internationally, copyrights are enforced by the The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, and which was first adopted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886. It requires its signatories to protect the copyright on works of authors from other signatory countries (known as members of the Berne Union) in the same way it protects the copyright of its own nationals. The Berne convention states a minimal protection of 50 years after the author's death, but each country is free to extend that. It also allows exceptions, i.e. members shall confine limitations and exceptions to exclusive rights to certain special cases which do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the rights holder.

Of course, authors are allowed to override

Typology of open content

Open content licenses can be defined according to several criteria and that can be combined of course, e.g.

Open content, i.e. access to reading: yes/no
Recipients: profit/no profit
Redistribution: yes/no
Modifications allowed (before redistribution): yes/no
Attribution (original author must be cited): yes/no
Share alike (redistribution must preserve the original copyright notice): yes/no

Fair use

Any content is at least a little bit open to reproduction. This is an accepted exception to copyright laws and allows authors to quote from other works (within reason)

In the United States, the fair use doctrine permits some copying and distribution without permission of the copyright holder or payment to same, e.g. for research, critique.

In some countries, teachers are allowed to distributed photocopies to students (but the institutions pay a flat tax on each copy) which then is redistributed to publishing companies.

Copies for private use are

The creative commons license

The Creative Commons website enables copyright holders to grant some of their rights to the public while retaining others through a variety of licensing and contract schemes including dedication to the public domain or open content licensing terms. The intention is to avoid the problems current copyright laws create for the sharing of information.

There are over 10 different versions of the creative commons license.

(see Creative Commons home page or Wikipedia: Creative Commons for more details).

GNU Free Documentation License

The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free content, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU project. It is the counterpart to the GNU GPL that gives readers the same rights to copy, redistribute and modify a work and requires all copies and derivatives to be available under the same license. Copies can also be sold commercially, but if produced in larger quantities (greater than 100) then the original document or source code must be made available to the work's recipient.

(Wikipedia, retrieved 17:28, 10 July 2006 (MEST))

Examples

Content of this Wiki uses the Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike version. This means that can use contents for non-commercial activities, that you can make derivative works if you cite us and that there is a copy-left.