Open Directory License

Free software	No

The Open Directory License is a license used by the Open Directory Project for its content. It is like many open source licenses, which are used for many types of software and sometimes its corresponding documentation. Examples of this strategy may include or ChefMoz, MusicMoz and OpenWine.

The Open Directory License, however, is unique to the Open Directory. The license expressly forbids its applicability to software or open content hosted elsewhere. Time Warner (via the Netscape Communications Corporation) owns the compilation copyright to its unique selection of website listings (links, titles and descriptions) in the open directory on dmoz.org. As a practical matter, this includes the layouts, and the categories, and does not extend to the content Dmoz links to, or the actual links themselves.

The Free Software Foundation describes the ODL as a non-free license, citing the right to redistribute a given version not being permanent, and the requirement to check for changes to the license.

[edit] External links

• The Open Directory License
• GNU Project - Non-free Documentation Licenses