Libre License

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Libre Licences
A libre licence is a license through which the author grants users the freedom to read, listen to, watch, or otherwise experience the resource; to learn from or with it; to copy, adapt and use it for any purpose; and to share derived works for the benefit of the community.

For a work to be considered "libre", it must either be in the public domain/CC0 or all of the essential freedoms must be granted by the licence. The essential freedoms are described in the libre knowledge definition and the free / Libre Cultural Works definition.

The following are examples of libre licenses:


 * CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain Dedication)
 * Creative Commons ShareAlike
 * Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
 * Creative Commons Attribution
 * GNU Free Documentation License

Mixing resources across licenses can be tricky.

For example, resources licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license can be adapted/ extended/ enhanced or mixed into resources licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike, and the result may be released as "Attribution-ShareAlike" - but not the other way round.

Keeping track of attributions can be cumbersome, and derived works need to be licensed and attributed correctly (in accordance with the licenses of the mixed components). The (proposed) Libre Puro Licence below relaxes the attribution requirement and permits so-licensed resources to be mixed into various copyleft licences.

The emblem may be included with resources which are shared under a libre license (such as those listed above).

Preamble for the Libre Puro License
Libre Puro resources may be adapted and incorporated into existing resources which have a copyleft/share-alike libre license (see above).

The Libre Puro license aims to inspire production of libre resources guaranteed to be accessible and adaptable with libre software, and which retain the associated freedoms in derived works.

The license decouples abuses of information/ knowledge/ cultural resources from the act of making copies and derived works, and does not require attribution. There is no requirement to maintain a tree of attributions for the libre puro components. The moral imperative to attribute the work rests with the user according to context. For example, in academic circles, authors acknowledge even public domain sources, whereas children mixing and sharing video clips for fun cannot be criminalised for doing so (even without attribution) if they are using libre resources. Abuses (such as plagiarism or mis-representation) may be dealt with via other processes than copyright (e.g. other legal, social, or institutional pressures covering fair dealing or fair use rights, moral rights, publicity or privacy rights, etc.).

Although the Libre Puro license does not require Attribution, acknowledgement of contributors is encouraged when appropriate.

Libre puro resources are multi-licensed:


 * users are free to make derived works and release these under any license which grants users all of the freedoms specified in the Libre Knowledge definition. The freedom to:


 * (0) use the work for any purpose
 * (1) study its mechanisms, to be able to modify and adapt it to their own needs
 * (2) make and distribute copies, in whole or in part
 * (3) enhance and/or extend the work and share the result as a libre resource.

The Libre Puro License incorporates a more flexible variation of share-alike: "Libre Share", which permits derived works and mixes to be licensed under other compatible licenses which grant users the freedoms indicated in the libre knowledge definition and require these be retained in derived works.

The following are examples of libre puro compatible licenses:


 * Creative Commons ShareAlike
 * Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
 * GNU Free Documentation License

If the result of mixing resources cannot be released under this Libre Puro License, it will be necessary to drop the libre puro license indicator and abide by the requirements of the new license. This is relevant when one or more of the components of a mix requires Attribution for example.

Libre communities collaboratively develop libre puro resources using libre puro resources, and label the results with the emblem expressing our values and intention for the resources and their derivatives to remain libre.

For resources which take the form of network services, the software running the service must be libre software which is libre puro compatible (e.g. released under a license such as the GNU Affero General Public License), and any underlying data essential for running the software (with respect for users' privacy) must be available under a libre puro compatible license, and it must be possible for users to export their own contributed data for checking purposes and for use elsewhere.

=Draft Libre Puro License for Discussion=


 * Libre Puro license (draft for discussion)
 * Draft Creative Commons Deed
 * Best Practices.

Previous Suggestions
Not pursued:


 * Libre License Draft Based on the Creative Commons Approach
 * Libre License Draft Based on FSF Approach

=References, Notes, etc.=