Open content

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Open Content is when someone creates something and allows others to copy it or make changes without having to ask for permission. Open content can be anything, like text or pictures or sound.

When someone creates something (like a picture or book), they can choose to make that work "open". This means that other people are allowed to copy it and change it if they want. Something that is open content may be free of charge, but it does not have to be.

The Simple English Wikipedia is open content. So are other Wikipedias. If a person changes open content or makes new open content, everyone can give it to anyone else, or even sell it. It is never needed to ask permission to do this, because the people who wrote the text already gave their permission when they clicked the Save button.

[edit] License

The rules that say how people can use, change and pass around open content are called a license. A license explains exactly what you are allowed to do with the content that falls under it.

Licenses are often written in difficult lawyer language ("legalese"). But for most licenses there are summaries that are much easier to understand.

The makers of open content get to choose what license to use for their work; everyone else has to follow that license. Only the maker, who owns the copyright, can change it to another license.

Most open content licenses insist that, whenever others change, sell or pass around the work, they also declare it to be open, under the same license. The good turn gets passed on.

All the content in Wikipedia is open under the rules of the GNU Free Documentation License, a very well-known open content license. Other well-known open content licenses are the Creative Commons licenses.

[edit] See also

• free software
• authorship
• open source
• content license