This is a list of free content licences not specifically intended for software. For information on software-related licences, see Comparison of free and open-source software licences. A variety of free content licences exist, some of them tailored to a specific purpose. Also listed are open hardware licences, which may be used on design documents of and custom-made software for open-source hardware.

List

For documents and text

FreeBSD Documentation License The FreeBSD Documentation License is the license that covers most of the documentation for the FreeBSD operating system. License The license is very similar to the 2-clause Simplified BSD License used by the support of FreeBSD, however, it make ...

GNU Free Documentation License The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the r ...

, or GODLEY *

GNU Simpler Free Documentation License The GNU Simpler Free Documentation License (GSFDL) is a proposed version of the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) that has no requirements to maintain Cover Texts and Invariant Sections. It is meant to provide a simpler licensing option for aut ...

, or GOODLAND * Open Content License, obsolete *

Open Publication License The Open Publication License (OPL) was published by the Open Content Project in 1999 as a public copyright license for documents. It superseded the Open Content License, which was published by the Open Content Project in 1998. Starting around 2 ...

For any type of content

* Against DRM license *

Creative Commons license 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 ...

s which are considered free: **

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 ...

, or CC BY **

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 ...

, or CC BY-SA **

Creative Commons Zero 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 ...

, or CC0 * Creative Archive Licence, discontinued licence of the BBC Archive * 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 ...

* Korean Open Access License *

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 ...

WTFPL WTFPL is a permissive free software license. As a public domain like license, the WTFPL is essentially the same as dedication to the public domain. It allows redistribution and modification of the work under any terms. The title is an abbreviat ...

For fonts

* Apache License *

SIL Open Font License The SIL Open Font License (or OFL in short) is one of the major open font licenses, which allows embedding, or "bundling", of the font in commercially sold products. OFL is a free and open source license. It was created by SIL International ...

Ubuntu Font License Ubuntu is an OpenType-based font family, designed to be a modern, humanist-style typeface by London-based type foundry Dalton Maag, with funding by Canonical Ltd. The font was under development for nearly nine months, with only a limited in ...

* See also:

GPL font exception The GPL font exception clause (or GPL+FE, for short) is an optional clause that can be added to the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) permitting digital fonts shared with that license to be embedded within a digital document file without requ ...

For hardware

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 ...

Simputer General Public License The Simputer General Public License, or the SGPL is a hardware distribution public copyright license drafted specifically for the purpose of distributing Simputers. As a license it has been loosely modeled on the GPL The GNU General Public Lic ...

TAPR Open Hardware License The TAPR Open Hardware License (TAPR OPL) is a license used in open-source hardware projects. It was created by Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR), an international amateur radio organization. Version 1.0 was published on May 25, 2007. Like the ...

For tabletop games

Dominion Rules Licence The Dominion Rules Licence (or DRL) is the open gaming licence under which the Dominion Rules role-playing game system is distributed. It is notable for being one of the earliest examples of an open gaming licence, predating the better known Open G ...

, used for tabletop games *

Open Game License The Open Game License (OGL) is a public copyright license by Wizards of the Coast that may be used by tabletop role-playing game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, nota ...

, used for tabletop games

Using software licences for other content

Some free software licences, including the

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 (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...

(GPL) and

European Union Public Licence The European Union Public Licence (EUPL) is a free software licence that was written and approved by the European Commission. The licence is available in 23 official languages of the European Union. All linguistic versions have the same validity. ...

, can also be used to license content other than software. However, the FSF has recommended against using the GPL for educational works.

Notes

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