Open Knowledge Licenses

If you'd like to contribute to, or otherwise amend, this list please use the edit link at the bottom of the page (you might also want to take a look at the participate page).

This section of the site lists licenses that are conformant with the principles laid out in the open knowledge definition. As well as listing those licenses which are conformant we also include a list of some non-conformant licenses -- usually those that while supporting some of the principles do not support all of them and are therefore non-conformant.

Contents

  1. Open Knowledge Licenses
    1. Conformant Licenses
      1. 'MIT' Database License
        1. Full Text
        2. Comments
        3. How to Apply
      2. Against DRM
        1. Full text
        2. Comments
      3. Creative Commons Attribution License (cc-by)
        1. Full text
        2. Comments
        3. How to apply
      4. Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (cc-by-sa)
        1. Full text
        2. Comments
        3. How to apply
      5. Design Science License
        1. Full text
        2. Comments
        3. How to apply
      6. Free Art License
        1. Full text
        2. How to apply
      7. GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)
        1. Full text
        2. Comments
        3. How to apply
      8. Talis Community License (TCL)
        1. Full text
        2. Comments
        3. How to apply
      9. UK PSI (Public Sector Information) Click-Use Licence
        1. Full text
        2. Comments
      10. Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence (ODC PDDL)
        1. Full Text
        2. Comments
      11. Open Database License
        1. Full Text
        2. Comments
      12. MirOS License
        1. Full Text
        2. How to Apply
    2. Non-Conformant Licenses
      1. Creative Commons No-Derivatives Licenses
      2. Creative Commons NonCommercial
      3. Project Gutenberg License
        1. Full text
        2. Comments
    3. Discontinued Licenses
      1. Creative Commons Developing Nations License
        1. Full text
        2. Comments
      2. EFF Open Audio License
        1. Full text
        2. Comments
      3. Open Publication License
        1. Full text
        2. Comments

1. Conformant Licenses

The following licenses are conformant with the principles set forth in the open knowledge definition.

1.1. 'MIT' Database License

  • Domain of application: Data.

1.1.1. Full Text

Text-wrapped at 72 characters for convenience: 

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
copy of this data and associated documentation files (the "Database"),
to deal in the Database without restriction, including without
limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute,
sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Database, and to permit persons to
whom the Database is furnished to do so, subject to the following
conditions:

The above notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Database.

THE DATABASE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR RIGHTS HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,
DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE DATABASE OR
THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE DATABASE.

1.1.2. Comments

This license is straight-forward mod of the MIT Open Source License developed as part of the Guide to Open Data Licensing.

1.1.3. How to Apply

Include a full copy of the text of the license with the material you are distributing.

1.2. Against DRM

  • Domain of Application: Content

1.2.1. Full text

http://www.freecreations.org/Against_DRM2.html
http://www.freecreations.org/Against_DRM2_es1.html
http://www.freecreations.org/Against_DRM2_es2.html
http://www.freecreations.org/Against_DRM2_fr.html
http://www.freecreations.org/Against_DRM2_it.html

1.2.2. Comments

Against DRM 2.0 is a free copyleft license for artworks.

1.3. Creative Commons Attribution License (cc-by)

1.3.1. Full text

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/ (v1.0)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ (v2.5)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (v3.0)

1.3.2. Comments

The Creative Commons Attribution license allows re-distribution and re-use of a licensed work on the condition that the creator is appropriately credited.

1.3.3. How to apply

Include a link to, or a full copy of the license you use, and something like the following: 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution [version number] License.

1.4. Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (cc-by-sa)

1.4.1. Full text

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/ (v1.0)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ (v2.5)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ (v3.0)

1.4.2. Comments

The Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license allows re-distribution and re-use of a licensed work on the conditions that the creator is appropriately credited and that any derivative work is made available under "the same, similar or a compatible license".

1.4.3. How to apply

Include a link to, or a full copy of the license you use, and something like the following: 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike [version number] License.

1.5. Design Science License

  • Domain of Application: Content + Data.

1.5.1. Full text

http://www.pentangle.net/python/dsl.php

1.5.2. Comments

A fairly obscure license that, to our knowledge, has not been much adopted by anyone beyond its author. It has an interesting definition of 'source data' in relation to knowledge:

  • "Source Data" shall mean the origin of the Object Form, being the entire, machine-readable, preferred form of the Work for copying and for human modification (usually the language, encoding or format in which composed or recorded by the Author); plus any accompanying files, scripts or other data necessary for installation, configuration or compilation of the Work.

    (Examples of “Source Data” include, but are not limited to, the following: if the Work is an image file composed and edited in PNG format, then the original PNG source file is the Source Data; if the Work is an MPEG 1.0 layer 3 digital audio recording made from a WAV format audio file recording of an analog source, then the original WAV file is the Source Data; if the Work was composed as an unformatted plaintext file, then that file is the Source Data; if the Work was composed in LaTeX, the LaTeX file(s) and any image files and/or custom macros necessary for compilation constitute the Source Data.)

1.5.3. How to apply

Include a link to, or a full copy of the Design Science License in your work, and something like the following: 

   Copyright (c)  [YEAR]  [YOUR NAME].
   This work is made available under the terms of the Design Science License.

1.6. Free Art License

  • Domain of Application: Content.

1.6.1. Full text

http://artlibre.org/licence.php/lalgb.html

1.6.2. How to apply

Include a link to, or a full copy of the Free Art License in your work, and something like the following: 

    Copyright © [the date] [name of the author or artist] (if appropriate, specify the 
    names of the previous authors or artists)
    Copyleft: this work of art is free, you can redistribute it and/or modify it 
    according to terms of the Free Art license.
    You will find a specimen of this license on the site Copyleft Attitude 
    http://artlibre.org as well as on other sites.

1.7. GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

  • Domain of Application: Content.

1.7.1. Full text

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html

1.7.2. Comments

The GNU Free Documentation License is a copyleft license - which means that derivative works must be made available under the same or a similar license.

The creators of the license recommend that it is used "principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference." Its most prominent user is Wikipedia.

The GFDL is only considered conformant if you

  • don't use invariant Sections or cover texts
  • don't include an "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications" section
  • amend the DRM restriction (section 2) to be less broad (for example restricting to the requirement that the work is available without TPMs)

Please see for more information:

Note that it appears that the FSF may be fixing these issues in a new release of the GFDL planned for late 2006.

1.7.3. How to apply

To use the GFDL, include a copy of the full text of the license and the following notice in your work: 

   Copyright (c)  [YEAR]  [YOUR NAME].
   Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
   under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
   or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
   with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
   Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
   Free Documentation License".

1.8. Talis Community License (TCL)

  • Domain of Application: Data.

WARNING: the TCL is in the process of being replaced by the Open Database License developed by Jordan Hatcher and Charlotte Waelde and released on the 2007-09-24. As of 2007-10-22 this was still in beta state but could still be usuable (it is one of the most thorough DB-specific licenses developed so far).

1.8.1. Full text

http://www.talis.com/tdn/tcl

1.8.2. Comments

The TCL currently exists only in draft form. The TCL is explicitly intended to address the protection of data in line with the European notion of a Database Right, as opposed to the Copyright protections afforded to creative works by the majority of equivalent licenses.

1.8.3. How to apply

Include a link to, or a full copy of the TCL in your work, and something like the following: 

   Copyright (c)  [YEAR]  [YOUR NAME].
   This work is made available under the terms of the Talis Community License.

1.9. UK PSI (Public Sector Information) Click-Use Licence

  • Domain of Application: Content + Data (?).

1.9.1. Full text

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/system/licenceterms/CCWPS03-00.pdf

1.9.2. Comments

Used for a variety of material produced by UK central and local government.

Ancillary information from the Office of Public Sector Information can be found at:

More information including an (excerpted) plain text version of the licence can be found at:

1.10. Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence (ODC PDDL)

  • Domain of Application: Data

1.10.1. Full Text

http://www.opendatacommons.org/odc-public-domain-dedication-and-licence/

1.10.2. Comments

Currently (2008-02) still in beta but it is planned that it will be officially launched in March 2008.

1.11. Open Database License

  • Domain of Application: Data

1.11.1. Full Text

http://www.opencontentlawyer.com/open-data/open-database-licence/

1.11.2. Comments

Currently (2008-02) still in beta.

1.12. MirOS License

  • Domain of Application: Code, Content

1.12.1. Full Text

See http://mirbsd.de/MirOS-Licence

1.12.2. How to Apply

See http://mirbsd.de/MirOS-Licence

2. Non-Conformant Licenses

2.1. Creative Commons No-Derivatives Licenses

Creative Commons No-Derivatives (by-nd-*) violate principle 3., "Reuse", as they do not allow works, in part or in whole, to be re-used in derivative works.

Creative Commons licenses with the Noderivs stipulation include:

2.2. Creative Commons NonCommercial

Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses (by-nc-*) do not support the Open Knowledge Definition principle 8., "No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor", as they exclude usage in commercial activities.

Creative Commons licenses with the non-commercial stipulation include:

2.3. Project Gutenberg License

2.3.1. Full text

http://www.gutenberg.org/license

2.3.2. Comments

Used on Gutenberg's ebooks of public domain texts. It is non-open because it restricts commercial use. Note that the license only applies if you continue to use the Gutenberg name - if you remove the licensing information and any reference to Project Gutenberg then the resulting text is open.

3. Discontinued Licenses

3.1. Creative Commons Developing Nations License

3.1.1. Full text

http://creativecommons.org/license/devnations

3.1.2. Comments

The license has been discontinued. Creative Commons developing nations license does not support principle "7. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups".

3.2. EFF Open Audio License

3.2.1. Full text

http://www.eff.org/IP/Open_licenses/eff_oal_version1.php

3.2.2. Comments

As of v2.0 merged with CC by-sa license: 'EFF designates the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license as version 2.0 of the Open Audio License.' source on eff site

3.3. Open Publication License

3.3.1. Full text

http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/

3.3.2. Comments

Discontinued in favour of Creative Commons. In late 2004 the site was overhauled and turned into a portal to open academic content. In August 2007, David Wiley, the author of opencontent lauched the draft Open Education License.

License is not conformant if either options A or B are added to the main body of the license. Option A prohibits 'substantive modification' and option B prohibits commercial use of printed copies.