Free content
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Open content materials can be viewed or used for free, but may have other restrictions (usually requiring attribution, or less commonly allowing no derivations. (Some content allows only non-commercial use, but this may be considered to be not true "open content".)
Public domain content has no restrictions whatsoever, but it is often (as at Appropedia) regarded as a good thing to give attribution.
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[edit] Gratis and libre
A contrast is made between "Free As In Beer" and "Free As In Speech," also called gratis and libre.
Gratis means "for nothing," free of charge, even though the good or service has value.
This is sometimes explained with the phrase, "Free as in free beer".
Libre is a word in some languages (from Latin and related to "līberty"), that denotes being free, as in "freedom". The phrases "free as in free speech" and "free as in freedom" are used to explain this.
True "free content" and "free software" is both
Members of the free software community often talk about free as in free speech (libre) and free as in free beer (gratis, gratuit), as the word free in English does not distinguish between these meanings. "Free software" usually means the former.
[edit] What free doesn't mean
A free license does not mean that the user cannot use it for commercial purposes.[1] However, if the license has a share-alike clause (e.g. CC-by-sa or GFDL), the user who creates a derivative must license the content in the same way and cannot prevent another party from using it as they choose.
[edit] Open content
Open content has a similar meaning, but there appears to be no clear, agreed-upon definition.
The name OpenCourseWareWP suggests it is open content. However use of the content often has a non-commercial condition and thus is not free content.
[edit] Searching for open content
- Appropedia's Public Domain Search - for content with no restrictions
- Creative Commons Search - for CC licensed content (using Google or Yahoo advanced search options)
- Google and Yahoo advanced searches offer permission options, which search for pages with CC license marks.
[edit] Notes
- ↑ There is the option of a non-commercial clause but such a license is widely considered as not being true "free content".
[edit] Interwiki links
