Open content

Open content or OpenContent is a neologism coined by David Wiley in 1998 which describes a creative work that others can copy or modify. The term evokes open source, which is a related concept in software.

When the term OpenContent was first used by Wiley, it described works licensed under the Open Content License (a copyleft license) and perhaps other works licensed under similar terms. It has since come to describe a broader class of content without conventional copyright restrictions. The openness of content can be assessed under the '4Rs Framework' based on the extent to which it can be reused, revised, remixed and redistributed by members of the public without violating copyright law. Unlike open source and free content, there is no clear threshold that a work must reach to qualify as 'open content'.

Although open content has been described as a counterbalance to copyright, open content licenses rely on a copyright holder's power to license their work.

Definition

The OpenContent website once defined OpenContent as 'freely available for modification, use and redistribution under a license similar to those used by the Open Source / Free Software community', that is to say, a libre license which allows commercial adaptation of the work as well as its distribution. It is unclear if OpenContent was used to exclusively describe content licensed under the Open Content License (OPL) or if OPL content was a subset of OpenContent.

The term since shifted in meaning, and the OpenContent website now describes openness as a 'continuous construct'. The more copyright permissions are granted to the general public, the more open the content is. The threshold for open content is simply that the work 'is licensed in a manner that provides users with the right to make more kinds of uses than those normally permitted under the law - at no cost to the user.'

The 4Rs are put forward on the OpenContent website as a framework for assessing the extent to which content is open:

1. Reuse - the right to reuse the content in its unaltered / verbatim form (e.g., make a backup copy of the content)
2. Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
3. Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
4. Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

This broader definition distinguishes open content from open source software, since the latter must be available for commercial use and adaptation by the public. However, it is similar to several definitions for open educational resources, which include resources under noncommercial and verbatim licenses. The Open Definition, which purports to define open content and open knowledge, draws heavily on the Open Source Definition; it preserves the limited sense of open content as libre content.

Free content and free documentation

Main article: free content

As with the terms "open source" and "free software", some open content materials can also be described as "free content". However, free content has preserved the requirement (present in both open source and free software) that licenses allow commercial use and adaptation. For similar reasons, the Free Software Foundation describes the Open Content License as a non-free documentation license.

Open access

"Open access" refers to toll-free or gratis access to content, consisting mainly of published peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles. Some open access works are also licensed for reuse and redistribution, which would qualify them as open content.

Licenses

According to the current definition of open content on the OpenContent website, any general, royalty-free copyright license would qualify as an open license because it 'provides users with the right to make more kinds of uses than those normally permitted under the law - at no cost to the user.'

However, the narrower definition used in the Open Definition effectively limits open content to libre content; any free content license would qualify as an open content license. According to this narrower criteria, the following still-maintained licenses qualify:

• Creative Commons licenses (only Creative Commons Attribution, Attribution-Share Alike and Zero)
• Open Publication License (the original license of the Open Content Project, the Open Content License, did not permit for-profit copying of the licensed work and therefore does not qualify)
• Against DRM license
• GNU Free Documentation License
• Open Game License (a license designed for role-playing games by Wizards of the Coast)
• Free Art License

See also

• Digital freedom
• Free content
• Ideagoras
• Open source
• Open data
• Open catalogue

External links

• IOSN Open Content e-Primer — from their FOSS e-Primers Section
• Open Knowledge Definition: Defining the Open in Open Data, Open Content and Open Information — set of principles from the Open Knowledge Foundation

Repositories and directories

• OpenCourseWare Consortium — portal linking to free and openly licensed course materials from hundreds of universities worldwide
• MIT OpenCourseWare — free and openly licensed course materials from more than 1,800 MIT courses
• Connexions — global open-content repository started by Rice University
• OER Commons — network of open teaching and learning materials, with ratings and reviews
• OpenLearn — free and open educational resources from The Open University
• Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) — directory/registry of open data/content packages and projects
• UNESCO Open Training Platform — network for international development issues
• Open ICEcat catalog — worldwide open catalog for product information
• LRE for schools - The Learning Resource Exchange for schools is a federation of repositories including open content from 18 Ministries of Education in Europe