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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Free content" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Free content, or free information, is any kind of functional work, artwork, or other creative content having no significant legal restriction relative to people's freedom to use, redistribute, and produce modified versions of and works derived from the content. It is distinct from Open content in that it can be modified, whereas one might not have that ability with content that is simply "open", and not "free".

Free content encompasses all works in the public domain and also those copyrighted works whose licenses honor and uphold the freedoms mentioned above. Because the law by default grants copyright holders monopolistic control over their creations, copyrighted content must be explicitly declared free, usually by the referencing or inclusion of licensing statements from within the work.

Though a work which is in the public domain because its copyright has expired is considered free, it can easily become non-free again with all its derivatives becoming non-free or illegal, if the copyright law changes.

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See also

• Creative Commons
• Free Culture Movement
• Free software and open source software
• Freedom of information
• Libre knowledge
• Open access
• Open content
• Open Content Alliance
• Open publishing
• Project Gutenberg

1. Richard Stallman (2008-03-20). "Free Software and Free Manuals". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
2. Nate Anderson (2008-07-16). "EU caves to aging rockers, wants 45-year copyright extension if the copyright law changes". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2008-08-08.