A Guide To Open Content Licences
Lawrence Liang

What is copyright?

What is copyleft?

How can we share culture in a world where everything has a license?

Scientists, writers, designers, artists, musicians and others are increasingly interested in making their work available in 'the public domain'. This booklet is an overview of the ways in which this has been done and a guide to the growing area of Open Content Licenses through which people design and safeguard access to their work.

Table of Contents


A PDF file of the booklet can be downloaded here.

To receive a paper copy by post, send a self-addressed envelope to:

Open Content Guide,
Media Design Research,
Piet Zwart Institute,
PO Box 1272,
3000 BG Rotterdam,
The Netherlands.
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Black and White (and Grey) of Copyright
Chapter 2: Copyleft Contextualised

* Free Software: Copyright Rearticulated
* Licenses and the Control of Copyright
* Challenges to Copyright
* The GNU GPL
* The Public Domain
* Open / Collaborative Production

Chapter 3: General Characteristics of Open Content Licenses

* Basis of the license / validity of the license
* Rights granted
* Derivative Works
* Commercial / Non Commercial Usage
* Procedural Requirements imposed
* Appropriate Credits
* Open content licenses do not affect fair use rights
* Absence of Warranty
* Standard Legal Clauses

Chapter 4: Mapping Out the Domain of Open Content Licenses

* On the basis of the medium they address
* On the nature of the license
* On the validity of the license

Chapter 5: A Comparative Guide to Key Open Content Licenses

* Free Art License
* GNU Free Documentation License
* Common Documentation License
* EFF Open Audio License
* Open Music Licenses
* The Green OpenMusic License
* The Yellow OpenMusic License
* The Red OpenMusic License
* Creative Commons Licenses
* Open Content and Open Publication License
* The Open Content License
* Open Publication License
* Design Science License
* Ethymonics Free Music License

Further reading
Glossary
About the author