Version 1.1 of the definition has been released. Please help updating it, contribute translations, and help us with the design of logos and buttons to identify free cultural works and licenses!
Definition/Ja
- Original, v.1.1: English
- Translations, v.1.1: العربية • български • català • čeština • Deutsch • Ελληνικά • Esperanto • español • فارسی • français • galego • hrvatski • italiano • 한국어 • македонски • मराठी • norsk bokmål • Nederlands • norsk nynorsk • polski • português • română • русский • slovenčina • slovenščina • svenska • Tiếng Việt
- Translations, v.1.0 (update/review pending): suomi
- More in progress
要約
この文書は「自由文化作品」を定義したものです。自由文化作品とは、誰もが、どのような目的にでも 自由に習作、活用、複製、または編集することのできる、作品や表現をさします。 またこれらの基本的自由を尊重したり守るための、特定の許可可能な制限をも表します。 この定義では「フリー作品」と、フリー作品のステータスを法的に保護することに用いることのできる 自由ライセンスとを区別します。定義じたいはライセンスではありません。 作品とライセンスのどちらが「自由」なのかを判別するための道具です。
前文
社会と技術の発展により、さまざまな作品を「アクセス、創作、修正、出版、頒布」できる 人たちが増加してきました。 こういった作品は美術作品であったり、科学的、教育的教材であったり、ソフトウェアだったり 記事だったりします。端的に言えば「デジタル形式で表されうる何か」です。 これらの新しい可能性を多くのコミュニティが実践し、再利用可能な作品という財を 形成してきました。
ほとんどの作者は、活動分野の違いこそあれ、またアマチュアであれプロフェッショナルであれ、
作品が広まり、再利用され、創発的な手法で派生してゆく生態系にたいして、純粋な興味を持っています。
作品の再利用と派生が容易になればそれだけ、私たちの文化がより豊かになります。
この生態系のすばらしい機能を確かなものとするため、著作者の作品は自由であるべきです。
この「自由」を私たちは
- 作品を利用する自由、そしてその作品を使うという便益を楽しむ自由
- 作品を習作する自由、そしてその作品から得られる知識を応用する自由
- 作品を複製し、再配布する自由、情報や表現の、全体でも一部でも
- 作品に手を加え、改善する自由、そして派生作品を配布する自由
の意味で用います。これらの自由は誰でも、どこでも、いつでも利用可能であるべきです。 作品が用いられる文脈において制限されるべきではありません。 創作性とは、既存の資源を、それまでには思いもよらなかったやりかたで用いる作業です。
しかしながらほとんどの国ではこの自由は強制されていないばかりか、一般に「著作権法」という名の
法律によって抑圧されています。
In most countries however, these freedoms are not enforced but suppressed by the laws commonly named copyright laws. They consider authors as god-like creators and give them an exclusive monopoly as to how "their content" can be re-used. This monopoly impedes the flourishing of culture, and it does not even help the economic situation of authors so much as it protects the business model of the most powerful publishing companies.
In spite of those laws, authors can make their works free by choosing among a vast array of legal documents known as free licenses. For an author, choosing to put his work under a free license does not mean that he loses all his rights, but it gives to anyone the freedoms listed above.
It is important that any work that claims to be free provides, practically and without any risk, the aforementioned freedoms. This is why we hereafter give a precise definition of freedom for licenses and for works of authorship.
Identifying Free Cultural Works
This is the Definition of Free Cultural Works, and when describing your work, we encourage you to make reference to this definition, as in, "This is a freely licensed work, as explained in the Definition of Free Cultural Works." If you do not like the term "Free Cultural Work," you can use the generic term "Free Content," or refer instead to one of the existing movements that express similar freedoms in more specific contexts. We also encourage you to use the Free Cultural Works logos and buttons, which are in the public domain.
Please be advised that such identification does not actually confer the rights described in this definition; for your work to be truly free, it must use one of the Free Culture Licenses or be in the public domain.
We discourage you to use other terms to identify Free Cultural Works which do not convey a clear definition of freedom, such as "Open Content" and "Open Access." These terms are often used to refer to content which is available under "less restrictive" terms than those of existing copyright laws, or even for works that are just "available on the Web".
Defining Free Culture Licenses
Licenses are legal instruments through which the owner of certain legal rights may transfer these rights to third parties. Free Culture Licenses do not take any rights away -- they are always optional to accept, and if accepted, they grant freedoms which copyright law alone does not provide. When accepted, they never limit or reduce existing exemptions in copyright laws.
Essential freedoms
In order to be recognized as "free" under this definition, a license must grant the following freedoms without limitation:
- The freedom to use and perform the work: The licensee must be allowed to make any use, private or public, of the work. For kinds of works where it is relevant, this freedom should include all derived uses ("related rights") such as performing or interpreting the work. There must be no exception regarding, for example, political or religious considerations.
- The freedom to study the work and apply the information: The licensee must be allowed to examine the work and to use the knowledge gained from the work in any way. The license may not, for example, restrict "reverse engineering".
- The freedom to redistribute copies: Copies may be sold, swapped or given away for free, as part of a larger work, a collection, or independently. There must be no limit on the amount of information that can be copied. There must also not be any limit on who can copy the information or on where the information can be copied.
- The freedom to distribute derivative works: In order to give everyone the ability to improve upon a work, the license must not limit the freedom to distribute a modified version (or, for physical works, a work somehow derived from the original), regardless of the intent and purpose of such modifications. However, some restrictions may be applied to protect these essential freedoms or the attribution of authors (see below).
Permissible restrictions
Not all restrictions on the use or distribution of works impede essential freedoms. In particular, requirements for attribution, for symmetric collaboration (i.e., "copyleft"), and for the protection of essential freedom are considered permissible restrictions.
Defining Free Cultural Works
In order to be considered free, a work must be covered by a Free Culture License, or its legal status must provide the same essential freedoms enumerated above. It is not, however, a sufficient condition. Indeed, a specific work may be non-free in other ways that restrict the essential freedoms. These are the additional conditions in order for a work to be considered free:
- Availability of source data: Where a final work has been obtained through the compilation or processing of a source file or multiple source files, all underlying source data should be available alongside the work itself under the same conditions. This can be the score of a musical composition, the models used in a 3D scene, the data of a scientific publication, the source code of a computer application, or any other such information.
- Use of a free format: For digital files, the format in which the work is made available should not be protected by patents, unless a world-wide, unlimited and irrevocable royalty-free grant is given to make use of the patented technology. While non-free formats may sometimes be used for practical reasons, a free format copy must be available for the work to be considered free.
- No technical restrictions: The work must be available in a form where no technical measures are used to limit the freedoms enumerated above.
- No other restrictions or limitations: The work itself must not be covered by legal restrictions (patents, contracts, etc.) or limitations (such as privacy rights) which would impede the freedoms enumerated above. A work may make use of existing legal exemptions to copyright (in order to cite copyrighted works), though only the portions of it which are unambiguously free constitute a free work.
In other words, whenever the user of a work cannot legally or practically exercise his or her basic freedoms, the work cannot be considered and should not be called "free."
Further reading
- See Licenses for discussion of individual licenses, and whether they meet this definition or not.
- See History for acknowledgments and background on this definition.
- See the FAQ for some questions and answers.
- See Portal:Index for topic-specific pages about free cultural works.
Versioning
New versions of this definition shall be released as soon as a consensus (achieved directly or through a vote, as per the authoring process) has developed around suggested changes. Numbering shall be 0.x for initial draft releases, 1.x, 2.x .. for major releases, x.1, x.2 .. for minor releases. A minor release is made when the text is modified in ways which do not have an impact on the scope of existing or hypothetical licenses covered by this definition.