Open content is a neologism coined by David Wiley in 1998 ^[1] which draws an analogy between open source practices and the publishing of content online.^[2] Open content describes thus any kind of creative work, or content, published under an open content license that explicitly allows copying and modifying of its information by anyone, not exclusively by a single organization, firm or individual.
Open content is an alternative paradigm to the use of copyright to create monopolies; rather than leading to monopoly, open content facilitates the democratization of knowledge.^[3]
The term open content is also used to describe works that would be more correctly described as open access. An open access work is available to everyone whereas an open content work can be copied and adapted by anyone.^[4]