Information Commons - Licensing Common

Licensing Common

Licensing is the process that copyright owners use to monitor reproduction, distribution, or other use of creative works. Majority of the license outside the commons are specific, costly, and restrictive. Licensing in the commons is quite different. Creators have begun to use the licensing model to grant permissions for many uses in advance. The GNU General Public License (GPL), developed by Richard Stallman at MIT in the 1980s is an example of such license. “The GNU Free Documentation License is a form of copyleft intended for use on a manual, textbook or other document to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifications, either commercially or non-commercially.” The GPL allow works in the common to be secured in the common.