Open knowledge refers to information or works without legal ownership, such as open source software and public domain art. It can be used freely without permission or restrictions.
Open knowledge refers to knowledge or information that is considered “open” or without any kind of legal ownership. This means that a work of art or literature that was created as “open” would not be protected by copyright, and any copyright owned by the creator of that work would be considered relinquished by its owner. Similarly, software is often called “open,” usually as “open source,” when its creator claims no ownership of the code used to create the software, and anyone else is free to use it. Open knowledge is the basis for a great deal of work done in free computer software development, and usually applies to older works of art as well.
While the term “open knowledge” may not necessarily be used in legal proceedings, it is used as a general term to refer to intellectual property over which no one claims ownership. This type of knowledge is free to access and use by anyone who is interested, without obtaining any type of permission and without legal restrictions. Many works may be used freely with the permission of their respective owners, or under certain terms and conditions, but these do not constitute open knowledge. True open knowledge exists without conditions and can be used at will by anyone who wishes.
This term is often used to refer to software or computer code that is created as open knowledge for use by others. Software is generally considered to be protected by copyright law at the time of its creation, usually under the same conditions as literary works. When someone creates software, but does so without claiming ownership of the source code used to make that software, it will often be referred to as “open source.” This type of open source software can sometimes have restrictions on its use, such as those who use it can’t do it for profit, but this is not always the case.
When open source software doesn’t have any kind of legal restriction on its use, then it constitutes open knowledge. Open knowledge also includes older works of art that are no longer protected by copyright law, such as those considered to be in the ‘public domain’. Other forms of intellectual property, such as a patent or trademark, can also be dissolved to create this kind of knowledge. This is usually done at the original owner’s discretion, but once the property is legally disposed of, it is available for use by anyone who wishes to do so.
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