Open Textbooks - College Open Textbooks

Open textbooks are textbooks that are published with some form of open license. An open license is a blanket grant to use the book’s content under certain conditions. Open licenses contrast with traditional copyrights, where authors reserve all rights for themselves and those wishing to reuse the content must contact the author to gain rights. Open-licensed books are copyrighted; the license simply formalizes the permissions granted by the author. Dr. David Wiley has enumerated a set of five permissions which together describe the “openness” of an object. These are commonly referred to as The 5R Permissions: Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute. An open license grants these permissions under certain conditions. http://www.collegeopentextbooks.org/open-textbooks/