This definition is maintained as part of the SELF Legal Policy by the SELF Legal Experts Group (LEG). If you have comments about this definition, please feel free to submit them to the Legal Experts Group at leg - AT - selfproject.eu. A list of approved and disapproved licenses is available online .

Free Educational Material and Documentation

There are few existing definitions on what is Free Documentation, and almost no discussion of what is Free Educational Material, both of which have comparable roles in the SELF project. The most significant contribution to this debate has probably been made by the Open Access movement, in particular the Berlin Declaration¹ but also by the Creative Commons project, which has initiated a debate about various levels of freedom in the field.

Based on their work and the principle of erring on the side of freedom, for the scope of SELF, Free Educational Material and Documentation are defined as follows:

1. Unlimited use for any purpose

   Similar to the first freedom defining Free Software, there must be no limitation on the use of the material. In order to qualify as Free, it must in particular permit use in commercial training activities.

2. Modification

   It must be possible to change the material so it can be translated, improved and kept up-to-date, as well as to enable collaboration and creation of new, combined materials.

3. Distribution

   It must be possible to distribute the materials in original, modified, and combined forms. It must be at the choice of the individual distributor to do this with or without a fee.

This definition should be strong enough as to not exclude SELF from the future Free Educational Material community, regardless of the details and outcome of its constituting definition.

Educational Reference Material and Documentation

There is a considerable amount of documentation that can be redistributed at no cost and can be studied, but in particular does not allow modification. Such materials cannot be included in the SELF materials themselves, but can be used as Historic Reference by other SELF materials and shipped alongside them.