1. Introduction
For the past three decades, computer hackers have been writing, sharing, and editing program source code for free, an activity that has spawned the Open Source movement. In the last six or seven years, there has been much discussion of expanding the open source concept to non-software digital content -- documents, images, music, and video. This idea has been termed “open content.”
Section 2,
Defining Open Content defines open content. This is a difficult task, as the concept is new and no formal and authoritative definition exits.
Section 3,
Related Concepts explains open content's relation to intellectual property concepts like open source, free content, the public domain, and copyleft. This section clarifies the definition of open content and provide a little background history.
Sections 4 and 5,
Licenses I and
Licenses II describe some of the many open content public licenses available, such as GNU's GFDL and the Creative Commons licenses. These sections not only provide a practical survey, but also suggest what are the significant rights, restrictions and issues for open content creators.
Section 6,
Motivating Forces discusses some of the reasons why people choose to release their creative works as open content.
Section 7,
Inhibiting Forces discusses some of the reasons why open content isn't more common. Personal economics and current copyright law are two things that inhibit the proliferation of open content.
Section 8,
References lists footnotes made throughout this website, along with links to external resources. Clicking a footnote marker will take you to the appropriate footnote on the Reference page. Whenever a particular external website is referenced in this document, it will be linked to the "external links" section on the Reference page.
Finally, the “Open Content Spotlight” box appears on the lefthand side of each page, highlighting a different creative work published under a open content license. All of the works featured in a spotlight are listed on the Reference page.
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