An open-source license is a copyright license for computer software that makes the source code available for everyone to use. This allows end users to review and modify the source code for their own customization and/or troubleshooting needs. Open-source licenses are also commonly free, allowing for modification, redistribution, and commercial use without having to pay the original author. Some open-source licenses only permit modification of the source code for personal use or only permit non-commercial redistribution. All such licenses usually have additional restrictions such as a requirement to preserve the name of the authors and a copyright statement within the code. One popular set of free open-source software licenses are those approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) based on their Open Source Definition (OSD).
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The Free Software Foundation has a related but distinct criterion for evaluating whether or not a license qualifies a program as free software. All licenses qualified as free software are also considered open-source licenses. In the same way, the Debian project has its own criteria, the Debian Free Software Guidelines, on which the Open-Source Definition is based.
There are also shared source licenses which have some similarities with open source, such as the Microsoft Reciprocal License (MS-RL). They are mainly used by Microsoft and can range from extremely restrictive to comparable with free open-source software.
Free and open-source are two distinct categories of licensing that are most often used in conjunction. It is a common misconception that open-source licenses are free software licenses. In addition, this confusion is perpetuated by free software advocates that vigorously object to "open source" being used as a term for non-free licenses. The misconception is reinforced by significant overlap in the most common licenses found in the open-source and free software communities. Most free software licenses require the release of the source code. Most open-source licenses include rights permitting modification, distribution, and commercial use.
Open-source licensing in art is a way to share art work over the internet with controls set by the creator of the art. Open-source licensing allows the art to be accessible to everyone with little or no cost. In addition, it allows the art to be recreated or rearranged by new artists while still giving credit to the original creator. Websites like creativecommons.org give artists ways to open licenses their work and make it available to the public, thus making art an Information Commons.
Artists are able to control their work through the source code, allowing them to make their work Transparent, Recombinant, Credited, and Circulating
[1].
Transparent Requires the source code to be transparent, so that people can see how it was made.
Recombinant Allows other artists to recreate original piece by editing, rearranging, or adding of new material.
Credited Shows who the original creator was and who edited what.
Circulating Ensures that the original piece of art and any variations made remain in circulation to the public.
Music With open-source art, a musician could put a song/beat/lyrics up and get credit for creating it. Then a different musician could change the song/beat/lyrics to their preference without getting into legal trouble.
Performing Art Actors could recreate different plays, TV shows, and movies without getting into legal trouble or buying rights to perform copyrighted pieces.
Visual Art Artists could change or modify images and the original creator would still receive credit for their work.
Literature Writers would have the ability to change stories or make alternate endings, giving readers more material to enjoy.
1. http://three.org/ippolito/writing/wri_online_why.html