Wikipedia:Free or semi-free non-Public-Domain information resources

These resources are copyrighted and licensed under terms that allow free redistribution in some form. There may be requirements to credit the original authors, or restrictions on making modifications. Check the license posted on each site for such restrictions. Note well: many of these sources cannot be used directly in Wikipedia. See open content for more details.

To make the distinction beteen these items and public domain and GFDL resources clear,

• please move public domain resources to the Wikipedia:Public domain resources page, and
• move all GFDL-licensed resources to the new Wikipedia:GNU Free Documentation License resources page.

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Free or semi-free non-public-domain information resources:

• OpenContent.org (http://www.opencontent.org)
• Andamooka.org (http://www.andamooka.org)
• Uranium Information Centre (http://www.uic.com.au/) (Australia) Has educational info on nuclear and uranium industries - bottom of page states that most material on the UIC Web Site (specific exceptions listed) may be used or reproduced freely, with acknowledgement.
  • Lessons in Electric Circuits (http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/electricCircuits) by Tony R. Kuphaldt: a series of six textbooks about electronics, under the Design Science License.
• Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia (http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/) was last updated in 1997. Here is their license (http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/Project/license.htm): "Copying and redistribution of Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia is freely permitted, as is the creation, copying, and distribution of derivative works. The Requests For Comments (RFCs) are covered by a separate copyright, included below." I think we should contact the editor before importing anything into Wikipedia.

I guess it was updated since, though the main page wasn't: have a look at [1] (http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/new.htm).

• The UK Public Records Office (http://www.pro.gov.uk/default.htm) publishes documents that are Crown Copyright This allows "accurate" reproduction with an acknowledgement.
• GNU miscfiles project (http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/gnu/miscfiles/miscfiles-1.3.tar.gz)
• Flags of the World (http://www.fotw.ca/flags/) 12,900 pages about flags and view more than 23,000 images of flags (be careful in referring to them, as many of them, minor flags specially and by Jaime Olle', seem completely invented - verify with other sources too)
• Free Music! (http://hebb.mit.edu/FreeMusic/) Recordings of works of classical music in the public domain, released under the EFF's Open Audio License copyleft.
• Internet History Sourcebooks (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/) A collection of public domain and "copy permitted" (whatever that means) historical source documents collected by Paul Halsall at Fordham -- note: he claims copyright on some forms of these documents
• Soil and Health Library (http://www.soilandhealth.org/index): A collection of books on holistic agriculture, holistic health, self-sufficient living, and personal development. Some books are in the public domain, others are not.
• The Free Internet Lexicon and Encyclopedia: said to be "freely available": but what does this mean in copyright terms?
• http://www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/hww-fap/index_e.cfm Canadian Wildlife Service "Hinterland Who's Who". Useful material on various birds and mammals.
• Open Music Registry (http://www.openmusicregistry.org/) - works under Open Audio License
• The California Bureau of Land Management (http://www.ca.blm.gov/photo) provides a large number of photographs and images (particularly of wildlife and natural locations). It requests photo credit, and its copyright release states that "Photographs and images may be used free of charge for print and electronic publications. Photos and images may not be used to show, by implication or otherwise, that the U.S. Department of the Interior or BLM endorses any product, service or political view."
• Free images, liberal license but check it anyway (http://www.freeimages.co.uk)
• WebMuseum (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/) - their license agreement (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/about/license) is based on the Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 License; however, it explicitly allows (under point 7) copying under the GNU FDL. Contains information about art styles and painters, and images of artworks
• Javapedia, a wiki encyclopedia for Java related topics, published under the Creative Commons License (Attribution License v1.0).
• The Connexions Project (http://cnx.rice.edu/), a project held by Rice University, features dosens of complete courses (http://cnx.rice.edu/courses/) mostly in Mathematics and Electrical engineering. All content is covered by the Creative Commons License (Atrribution License v1.0). Can be copied/adopted to Wikipedia with a proper attribution. From their site:
  • Connexions is a collaborative, community-driven approach to authoring, teaching, and learning that seeks to provide a cohesive body of high-quality educational content to anyone in the world, for free.

Useful searches:

• Search for content licensed under the Creative Commons License (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22this+work+is+licensed+under+a+Creative+Commons+License%22), Note: this search will return more than 100,000 results, however, the vast majority of these are not GFDL compatible, look for content that have either:
  1. No restriction.
  2. Only the "attribution" restriction. (please provide appropriate attribution when copying from such content)

See also:

• Creative Commons License
• Public domain resources