Free Art License

Not to be confused with Artistic License.

Free Art License
(Licence Art Libre)

Free Art License logo
Latest version	1.3
Publisher	Copyleft Attitude
Published	8 April 2007[1]
SPDX identifier	LAL-1.2, LAL-1.3
FSF approved	Yes[2]
GPL compatible	No[2] (for possible exceptions see the compatibility section in this article)
Copyleft	Yes[2]
Website	artlibre.org

The Free Art License (FAL) (French: Licence Art Libre, LAL) is a copyleft license that grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works except for computer hardware and software, including for commercial use.[3]

History

The license was written in July 2000, with contributions from the mailing list [e-mail] and, in particular, with French lawyers Mélanie Clément-Fontaine and David Geraud, and French artists Isabelle Vodjdani and Antoine Moreau. It followed meetings held by Copyleft Attitude Antoine Moreau, with the artists gathered around the magazine Allotopie: Francis Deck, Antonio Gallego, Roberto Martinez, and Emma Gall. They took place at "Accès Local" in January 2000 and "Public" in March 2000, two places of contemporary art in Paris.[4]

In 2005, Moreau wrote a memoir edited by Liliane Terrier entitled in French: Le copyleft appliqué à la création artistique. Le collectif Copyleft Attitude et la Licence Art Libre (Copyleft applied to artistic creation. The Copyleft Attitude collective and the Free Art License).[5]

In 2007, version 1.3 of the Free Art License was amended to provide greater legal certainty and optimum compatibility with other copyleft licenses.[6]

Application

The license was inspired by FLOSS licenses and issues related but not exclusive to digital arts:[7]

It was born out of the observation of the world of free software and the Internet, but its applicability is not limited to digital support.

Version 1.1 was adopted by art organizations like Constant (Brussels) and was translated into English by artist and technologist Antoine Schmitt.[7] The Open Definition website of the Open Knowledge Foundation lists FAL 1.2 and 1.3 as one of the licenses conformant with the principles outlined in the Open Definition.[8]

Compatibility

The Free Art License 1.3 has been declared compatible with CC BY-SA 4.0,[9] but incompatible with the GNU GPL.[2] It is recommended by the Free Software Foundation in the following terms: "We don't take the position that artistic or entertainment works must be free, but if you want to make one free, we recommend the Free Art License."[10]

Compatibility with CC BY-SA 4.0

The Free Art License 1.3 is equivalent to the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 license.[11]

On October 21, 2014, after public discussions, the Copyleft Attitude collective announced that the Free Art License is now legally compatible with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.[12] The Creative Commons organization warmly welcomed this decision as it had defended this compatibility since the beginning.[13]

See also

• Share-alike

References

1. LAL 1.3, copy in Internet Archive (in French)
2. "Various Licenses and Comments about Them". Free Software Foundation. 26 June 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
3. "FAQ_eng | Copyleft Attitude". artlibre.org. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
4. The first meetings of Copyleft Attitude, copy in Internet Archive (in French)
5. "DEA copyleft Antoine Moreau". antomoro.free.fr (in French). Retrieved 2024-02-03.
6. Kauffmann, Alexis (2007-04-09). "Licence Art Libre 1.3 - Entretien avec Antoine Moreau". Framablog (in French). Retrieved 2024-02-03.
7. "Free Art License". 2009-07-22. Archived from the original on 22 July 2009. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
8. "licenses/fal - Open Knowledge Definition - Defining the Open in Open Data, Open Content and Open Information". 2009-07-01. Archived from the original on 1 July 2009. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
9. "Compatible Licenses". Creative Commons. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
10. "Licenses - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation". www.gnu.org. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
11. "Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International — CC BY-SA 4.0". creativecommons.org. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
12. "Compatibilité Creative Commons BY+SA & Licence Art Libre | Copyleft Attitude". archive.wikiwix.com. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
13. "Big win for an interoperable commons: BY-SA and FAL now compatible". Creative Commons. 2014-10-21. Retrieved 2022-03-19.

External links

• The Free Art License; The Free Art License at the Wayback Machine (archived 14 February 2014) (in English)
• Licence Art Libre; Licence Art Libre at the Wayback Machine (archived 14 February 2014) (in French)
• Freemages: a library of photos under Free Art License (in English)