The Open Music Project Social Contract
The Open Music Project is an open source inspired initiative created and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. The following is a social contract that we created to reflect our commitment to the music community to keep MusicMoz a free and open resource. It has been based on the Open Directory Project Social Contract, which, in turn, was inspired and derived from the Debian Social Contract.
1. The Open Music Project Will Remain 100% Free
We promise to keep the distribution of MusicMoz data, and the submission process to these data, entirely free. We will support our data users who chose to add proprietary and revenue generating content, and other non-free value-added functionality to versions of the Open Music Project that they download. In turn, data users agree to attribute use back to us per our free data use license.
2. We Give Back to the Music Community
We license our content as free with attribution back to the Open Music Project. We will make the most comprehensive, user-friendly music resource possible, so the content and taxonomy will be widely used and distributed. We will do our best to publish content in a fair and impartial manner, and consider user requests and suggestions for improvement.
We will make every effort to build a high quality and comprehensive music resource. We will make every effort to evaluate all submissions to the Project. However, we do not guarantee all submitted content will get published. We will be highly selective and judicious about the content we add, and how we organise them. Content that we do not routinely publish is outlined in our guidelines.
We will protect MusicMoz's intellectual property from infringement. MusicMoz owns the rights to the compilation of the Open Music Project, as well as many of the individual contributions. However, we provide non-exclusive, royalty-free rights back to our editors for their personal contributions, so, they can present their material to the greater music community in other way if desired.
3. We Don't Hide Our Editorial Policies
We will keep all official MusicMoz editorial guidelines and policies open for public view at all times.
4. We Provide an Open Invitation to Join
We will extend an open invitation to the general public to join the Open Music Project. Our community is a diverse group of subject experts and music aficionados. Our categories attempt to express the depth and breath human musical creation. We accept editors from all walks of life, and we attempt to represent all points of view. We will keep our application process open to anyone interested in joining. Each new editor application will be reviewed by a member of the MusicMoz community.
Our application process is necessarily selective due to our commitment to building a quality music resource. Not all applications will be accepted. We do not endorse any formula for the perfect application, however our intent is to accept applications that show fairness, impartiality, objectivity, and "fit" within our editorial guidelines and codes of conduct.
5. We Encourage a Self-Regulating Community
We foster a self-regulating community governed by community-driven standards. We encourage the community to regulate itself, and to provide the checks and balances needed to ensure that its members follow mutually accepted codes of conduct and editorial standards. We depend on the honesty and integrity of the volunteer editors to ensure the Project is high-quality, user-friendly, and free of abuse.
6. Our Priorities are Our Data Users, Our Site Users and the Community
We will be guided by the needs of our data users, those who make use of musicmoz.org, and the MusicMoz editorial community. We will place their interests first in our priorities. We allow others to create value-added distributions containing MusicMoz data and data from other commercial and noncommercial sources, subject to the terms of our free data use license, without any fee from us.
7. Users Not Meeting the Free Use License
In order for the Open Music Project to flourish as a free and open music resource, it is critical that our users comply with our free data use license. We do not permit unattributed use of our data, and will request data users to place the attribution on their site or remove the data entirely if they wish not to comply. We consider unattributed use a legal infringement of the free data use license, and contrary to the Open Music Project's purpose as an open source inspired initiative.
Last updated 2 May, 2003