![Definition of Free Cultural Works logo notext](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Definition_of_Free_Cultural_Works_logo_notext.svg)
The Definition of Free Cultural Works is a definition of
free content from 2006. The project evaluates and recommends compatible free content licenses.
History
The
Open Content Project by
David A. Wiley in 1998 was a predecessor project which defined
open content. In 2003, Wiley joined the
Creative Commons as "Director of Educational Licenses" and announced the Creative Commons and their
licenses
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
as successors to his Open Content Project.
Therefore, Creative Commons'
Erik Möller
Erik Möller (born 1979) is a German freelance journalist, software developer, author, and former deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), based in San Francisco. Möller additionally works as a web designer and previously managed hi ...
in collaboration with
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman (; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...
,
Lawrence Lessig
Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...
,
Benjamin Mako Hill,
Angela Beesley,
and others started in 2006 the Free Cultural Works project for defining
free content. The first draft of the ''Definition of Free Cultural Works'' was published 2 April 2006. The 1.0 and 1.1 versions were published in English and translated into several languages.
The ''Definition of Free Cultural Works'' is used by the
Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best know ...
. In 2008, the Attribution and Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons licenses were marked as "Approved for Free Cultural Works".
Following in June 2009,
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
migrated to
use two licenses: the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...
as main license, additionally to the previously used
GNU Free Documentation License (which was made compatible
). An improved
license compatibility
License compatibility is a legal framework that allows for pieces of software with different software licenses to be distributed together. The need for such a framework arises because the different licenses can contain contradictory requirement ...
with the greater free content ecosystem was given as reason for the license change.
In October 2014, the
Open Knowledge Foundation
Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a global, non-profit network that promotes and shares information at no charge, including both content and data. It was founded by Rufus Pollock on 20 May 2004 in Cambridge, UK. It is incorporated in England a ...
's
Open Definition 2.0 for ''Open Works'' and ''Open Licenses'' described "open" as synonymous to the definition of free in the "Definition of Free Cultural Works" (and also the
Open Source Definition
''The Open Source Definition'' is a document published by the Open Source Initiative, to determine whether a software license can be labeled with the open-source certification mark.
The definition was taken from the exact text of the Debian Free ...
and
Free Software Definition
The Free Software Definition written by Richard Stallman and published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), defines free software as being software that ensures that the end users have freedom in using, studying, sharing and modifying that softwa ...
). A distinct difference is the focus given to the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
and that it focuses also on the accessibility ("
open access") and the readability ("
open format
An open file format is a file format for storing digital data, defined by an openly published specification usually maintained by a standards organization, and which can be used and implemented by anyone. Open file format is licensed with open li ...
s"). The same three creative commons licenses are recommended for
open content (
CC BY
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...
,
CC BY-SA
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...
, and
CC0
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...
) as additionally three for
open data
Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license.
The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movement ...
intended own licenses, the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL), the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-BY) and the
Open Data Commons Open Database License
The Open Database License (ODbL) is a copyleft license agreement intended to allow users to freely share, modify, and use a database while maintaining this same freedom for others.
ODbL is published by Open Data Commons, which is part of Open K ...
(ODbL).
"Free cultural works" approved licenses
*
Against DRM Against DRM 2.0 is a free copyleft license for artworks. It is the first free content license that contains a clause about related rights
In copyright law, related rights (or neighbouring rights) are the rights of a creative work not connected wit ...
*
BSD-like non-copyleft licenses
*
CERN Open Hardware License The CERN Open Hardware Licence (OHL or CERN OHL) is a license used in open-source hardware projects. It was created by CERN, which published version 1.0 in March 2011. Version 1.1 was published in July 2011. Version 1.2 was published in September ...
*
CC0
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyric ...
*
Creative Commons Attribution
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...
(CC BY)
*
Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA)
*
Design Science License
*
Free Art License
The Free Art License (FAL), (french: Licence Art Libre (LAL)) is a copyleft license that grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works.
History
The license was written in July 2000 with contributions from the mailin ...
*
FreeBSD Documentation License
*
GNU Free Documentation License (without invariant sections)
licenses
on freedomdefined.org
* GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...
* MirOS Licence
The MirOS Licence is a free content licence (for software and other free cultural works such as graphical, literal, musical, …) originated at The MirOS Project for their own publications because the ISC license used by OpenBSD was perceived as ...
* MIT License
The MIT License is a permissive free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts only very limited restriction on reuse and has, therefore, high license comp ...
* Open Publication License
References
External links
* Definition of Free Cultural Works
The Definition of Free Cultural Works is a definition of free content from 2006. The project evaluates and recommends compatible free content licenses.
History
The Open Content Project by David A. Wiley in 1998 was a predecessor project which ...
on freedomdefined.org
* 2006 Announcement on freedomdefined.org
Understanding Free Cultural Works
on creativecommons.org
Free content defined
on WikiEducator
FreeCulturalWorks
on DeviantArt
DeviantArt (historically stylized as deviantART) is an American online art community that features artwork, videography and photography, launched on August 7, 2000 by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, and Matthew Stephens among others.
DeviantArt, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Definition Of Free Cultural Works
Computer-related introductions in 2006