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Licenses – Open Source Initiative
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Sorting out the Ethical Licensing Mess
Software developers who give the world, for free, usage rights to the code they write often use open source licenses to make this gift legally explicit. These free usage rights (and then some) are …

Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
CC Search Portal
The Creative Commons (CC) Search Portal helps you search CC licensed works across multiple platforms.


The Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) License Slide
There are a large number of Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) licenses, but only a few are widely used. The widely-used licenses tend to be compatible, i.e., the software can be combined to produce a larger work. The following “license slide” figure makes it easy to see when common licenses can be combined:
Openverse
Search over 800 million free and openly licensed images, photos, audio, and other media types for reuse and remixing.

Some startups are going ‘fair source’ to avoid the pitfalls of open source licensing | TechCrunch
New alternative category to 'closed source' could help companies monetize software in the open -- without going all-in on open source.


Unlicense Yourself: Set Your Code Free
An initiative to help software developers waive their copyright and dedicate their work to the public domain by offering a standard template and process for disclaiming copyright interest in software, both for original authorship and for contributions.


Creative commons licenses and copyright may not stop academic work being used to train AI - Impact of Social Sciences
Considering the legal standing of creative commons licenses & copyright, Martin Eve suggests legal protections for academic work are unlikely to be forthcoming.
