Creative Commons and Open-Xchange
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Creative Commons?Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers copyright licenses for digital content (i.e., technically unstructured data) that are designed for the digital world where freedom of expression, attribution and sharing are basic rights. More information on the Creative Commons can be found here:
http://creativecommons.org/.
Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright — all rights reserved — and the public domain — no rights reserved. The licenses offered by the Creative Commons organization helps creators of content (text, audio, video, photographs, icons, clipart, stylesheets, etc.) retain the fundamental right of Attribution while inviting others to share and use their work, generally for non-commercial purposes — a "some rights reserved" copyright.
What is a Creative Commons License?A Creative Commons license is based on copyright. So they apply to all works that are protected by copyright law. The kinds of works that are protected by copyright law are:
- Text (analog and digital)
- Documents including books, poems, articles, blogs, wikis, etc.
- Digital text embedded in software programs and digital pages related to trademark/servicemarks, non-conventional commands/navigation, help, etc.
- Images (analog and digital)
- Digital formatted pages (for example, HTML- and XML-formatted pages)
- Audio (analog and digital)
- Ring/key/navigation/function tones
Creative Commons licenses give the creator/artist/developer (“attributee”) the ability to dictate how others may exercise the attributee’s copyright rights —such as the right of others to copy the work, make derivative works or adaptations of the work, to distribute the work and/or make money from the work. They do not give the attributee the ability to restrict anything that is otherwise permitted by exceptions or limitations to copyright—including, importantly, fair use or fair dealing—nor do they give the attributee the ability to control anything is not protected by copyright law, such as facts and ideas. Creative Commons licenses attach to the work and authorize everyone who comes in contact with the work to use it consistent with the license.
Creative Commons licenses are expressed in three different formats:
 | the Commons Deed (human-readable code), |
 | the Legal Code (lawyer-readable code); and |
 | the metadata (machine readable code). |
A complete list of Creative Commons Licenses can be found here:
http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the-licenses
What Creative Commons license has Open-Xchange selected for its work?Open-Xchange has chosen to apply a Creative Commons license called the “ Attribution/Noncommercial/ShareAlike 2.5 Deed” to the photos, drawings, icons, logos, trade- and servicemarks, HTML- and XML- formatted pages, online help repositories, clipart, stylesheets and text-tips, non-conventional commands and navigation, embedded documents, key/navigation/function-tones, and other protected content that are add-ons to community edition of Open-Xchange Server (Open-Xchange Server 0.8.2). These add-ons are called the ‘Open-Xchange Web Access Add-On’ and can be downloaded for free from our community web site,
www.open-xchange.org.
The definition of ‘Noncommercial’ is still being debated and defined within the Creative Commons community. Open-Xchange interprets Noncommercial to include all INTERNAL individual, not-for-profit and for-profit use. EXTERNAL individual, not-for-profit and for-profit use such a resale, rent and lease as well as inclusion of the digital content in an advertising model is considered COMMERCIAL use and prohibited under our interpretation of the license. Professional services providers have inquired as to the treatment of their services under our interpretation of the Noncommercial provisions; we view the performance of professional services as a NONCOMMERCIAL INTERNAL use of the digital content and it is allowed.
The source code of the community edition of Open-Xchange Server continues to be protected using the Free Software Foundation’s GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. The GPL version can still be access through open source clients such as KDE Kontact. The source code can be downloaded from our community web site
www.open-xchange.org.
Open-Xchange documentation continues to be available under a conventional copyright and it is only available with the commercial version of the product.
What freedom does the Creative Commons “Attribution/Noncommerical/ShareAlike 2.5” Deed offer members of the Open-Xchange community?
Members of the community are allowed to do the following things:
- copy, share, display and use the work for internal purposes
- make derivative works that are based upon Open-Xchange’s work that incorporate the same license form
The following guidelines are placed upon the uses of Open-Xchange’s copyrighted material or content:
- Attribution. Users of Open-Xchange, Inc’s work must attribute the work in the manner specified by Open-Xchange, Inc.
- Noncommercial: Individual, not-for-profit and for-profit users may copy, share, display and use the work for internal purposes -- and the derivative works based upon it -- but not for external commercial purposes [i.e., users may not resell the work nor offer the work for a rent or subscription nor offer the work in combination with advertising without a formal contract with Open-Xchnage, Inc.
- Share Alike. If users of Open-Xchange, Inc’s work alter, transform, or build upon this work, they may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one, i.e., “ Attribution/Noncommercial/ShareAlike 2.5”.
- For any reuse or distribution, users of Open-Xchange, Inc’s work must make clear to others the license terms of this work.
Any of these conditions can be waived if the user of Open-Xchange, Inc’s work obtains permission from Open-Xchange, Inc.
User’s fair use and other rights are in no way affected by the above.
What does this mean to me?Those using the community edition of Open-Xchange Server, Open-Xchange Server 0.8.2, will see no difference whatsoever. They are encouraged to continue using the software. They are free to make derivative works based upon this software and distribute them as long as the resultant works are under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 2 and Creative Commons License, Attribution/Noncommercial/ShareAlike 2.5.
Those developing enhancements, extensions or other types of derivative works based upon Open-Xchange Server 0.8.2 for resale must follow the terms of this license as well, so it is now necessary to obtain permission from Open-Xchange, Inc. to use the digital content that has been protected under the Creative Commons Deed.
If you have any other questions please contact:
Open-Xchange Inc.
303 South Broadway
Tarrytown, NY 01591, USA
info@open-xchange.com
