What does "Free & Open" really mean?

When we talk about "free & open discipleship tools", what do we really mean?

Many ministries give away their resources for free, in the sense that they cost no money. What we mean by "free & open" is not just free of cost but free as in freedom. The best explanation of the difference might be to compare some differences in licenses used for ministry materials. Note that this comparison is intended to highlight the differences and explain why we are going this direction with Door43. It is not intended to suggest that one approach is better than another, as there are valid and biblical reasons on each side of the conversation.

Simplicity

License agreements can tend to be lengthy, confusing and full of legal terms that are unclear to people not trained in copyright law.

One of the reasons Door43 uses a Creative Commons license is because Creative Commons has already done the hard work of making human-readable summaries of the Legal Code (the full license). Simplicity and clarity becomes increasingly important as discipleship content gets used and re-used in other cultures and languages around the world where good communication is paramount and legal advice may be limited.

Making copies

Many licenses for discipleship content require permission before making more than a set number of copies of the content.

We have no commercial interests in any of the Door43 discipleship content and there are no limits on the number of copies that people can make of the Door43 content.

Posting on other websites

Many licenses for discipleship content prohibit the posting of their content on other websites.

We encourage anyone who is interested in doing so to copy and paste as much Door43 content on their own website as they so desire. We only ask that they include a link back to http://door43.org when they do.

Modifying content

Many licenses for discipleship content prohibit the modification in any way of the content.

We realize that effective use of discipleship content within another language or culture necessarily involves translation of the content and that effective translation necessarily involves a certain degree of adaptation (aka modification) of the content. This is just the nature of cultural differences and effective cross-cultural communication. Rather than limit the use of Door43 content to a Western mindset, we encourage believers around the world to not just translate the content but to "indigenize" it and make it theirs. We would rather see the global church equipped for discipleship within their own cultural and linguistic paradigms than retain the content rights on the Door43 discipleship materials. Note: in order to ensure that free & open discipleship tools remain free & open, we do require that new content made from Door43 content be released under the same license.

Electronic duplication

Many licenses for discipleship content do not allow the electronic duplication of discipleship content or copying to devices such as CD/DVD without written permission.

We see the Internet and the rise of New Media (MP3 players, mobile phones, web applications, etc.) as one of the greatest opportunities for the advance of the Kingdom of God in history. Every computer device is essentially a digital copy machine and we don't want to limit the creation of copies of Door43 content. We encourage anyone, anywhere to create copies of Door43 discipleship content as often as they want. We want to see creative uses of Door43 content in ways and capacities we have never imagined.

Bundling content with software

Many licenses for discipleship content do not allow the content to be bundled in a software application (such as a Bible reader program) without written permission.

As with the previous point, we want people everywhere in the world to re-use, re-purpose and extend the Door43 discipleship content. So we pre-clear the use of the content in any way, including bundling it in a software application.

The Door43 License

This is the current draft of the license for Door43 (the final version will always be available at http://door43.org/legal once we put the website on-line):

All content in The Door43 Wiki is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

This means that you are free:

• to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to Remix — to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

• Attribution — You must attribute the source of the original work to Door43 (with a link to http://www.door43.org) but not in any way that suggests that Door43 endorses you or your use of the work. Derivative works that conflict with the Door43 Statement of Faith are strongly discouraged and should not contain any reference or attribution to Door43.
• Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

What we want to accomplish with this license is, fundamentally, giving people everywhere in the world the freedom to own the Door43 content and make it their own. This will also be included on the license page for Door43:

So what does this mean? It means you are pre-cleared and free to do just about anything with any content on this website, for any ministry purpose, including (but not limited to):

• Posting as much of it as you want on your own website
• Printing thousands of copies and giving them to anyone
• Adapting the content for your own ministry needs — need to change some paragraphs around? Add additional content (maybe to improve relevancy or clarity for your target audience)? Take out some pieces that aren't needed (or could miscommunicate) to your target audience? Go for it!
• E-mailing, text messaging, Twittering, blogging, podcasting, etc. as much of it as you want, anywhere in the world, in any language
• Creating applications for mobile phones, computers, gaming stations, etc. that display the content of the Door43 website
• Want to bundle the Door43 content in your iPhone application? Please do! Want to read the content over-the-air directly from door43.org? You are welcome to!
• Be creative in the use of Door43 content for ministry...

The only requirements of this license are listed above: point a link back to Door43 and release what you create with Door43 content under the same license (so that free content stays free).

Our goal is to see the global church equipped for ministry and we think the best way to do that is to give them the freedom to build on the discipleship tools we are creating.

Please see the Frequently Asked Questions for answers to some of the questions that arise from this approach to ministry.