Free license
A free license is a usage license that allows the use, redistribution and modification of copyrighted works. In contrast to free software, freely licensed text, image or sound works are referred to as free content (open content). The idea of free licenses originated in the free software movement . Free license is to be distinguished from license free .
The respective license texts regulate the right to reproduce and publish as well as the right to edit and change the work. Depending on the license, the author or the owner of the full usage rights grants the licensee these rights under certain conditions. Regulations as to when and how the authors of the work are to be named are contained in most free licenses. Free licenses sometimes require that adaptations of the work are also published under a free license - such licenses are often referred to as “strong free licenses”, and this licensing mechanism is called copyleft . The author can formulate these conditions in his own license text or use license standards for this purpose.
The Institute for Legal Issues in Free and Open Source Software lists more than 30 standard licenses for free content as well as a large number of software licenses. The BSD license and the GNU General Public License (GPL) are well known for free software . In addition to the GNU Free Documentation License, common standard licenses for free content are increasingly individual Creative Commons licenses as well as the UVM license for free content and the free art license ( artlibre ).
Other licenses such as the Open Database License or the BiOS Material Transfer Agreement regulate the free use of special types of intellectual property ( e.g. database , biotechnological invention).
Semi-free licenses
Since there is no generally accepted definition for free content, it is disputed whether certain license conditions are to be considered a free license. This applies in particular to licenses that do not allow use for commercial purposes or editing. The Institute for Legal Issues in Free and Open Source Software (IfrOSS) lists these as “ Open Content Licenses”; the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the Open Source Definition, on the other hand, exclude them from the narrower definition of free licenses and designate them as " semi-free ".
See also
literature
- Till Kreutzer: Open Content Licenses. A guide for practice . German UNESCO Commission , Bonn 2011, ISBN 978-3-940785-32-9 .
- Till Kreutzer: Open Content - A practical guide to the use of Creative Commons licenses , German Commission for UNESCO, University Library Center North Rhine-Westphalia, Wikimedia Germany, 2015 ISBN 978-3-940785-78-7 .
Web links
- IfrOSS: License Center (extensive overview list)
- Swiss Education Server: Legal Basis for Open Content
- heise.de: Open Source Licenses , July 25, 2006