The There is a need to use a standard license or a set of standard licenses for our online work. That way it will be clear how the content can be used and distributed. The software industry has several that it uses and this has been shown to be effective.
Do we need to develop our own license, or can we use one that is already available? One that might possible work for the biblical studies field would be the Creative Commons license (http://creativecommons.org/), and I believe some groups already use it. Creative Commons is “a nonprofit that offers a flexible copyright for creative work.” Something licensed under this scheme could allow sharing for non-profit uses in various ways and is a nice license.
Or, we could develop our own license or set of licenses. We may need something more specific than what Creative Commons or others might offer. If that is the case then it would be best to start developing more licenses. More discussion of this may need to take place.
It is one thing to produce content to be used for free. It is another thing entirely to produce good content to be used for free. A good way to make clear to your users your own goals for the project’s quality is to publish a standard for the project. In some cases it may even be appropriate for projects to share a common set of intellectual standards.
This course of action would be useful in a number of cases. First, it would give your contributors something in writing that they needed to adhere to, so in some cases it will protect the project from a certain amount of bad data. Second, it is another way to clarify what you are really trying to accomplish with your project. Third, it is a useful tool to differentiate your project from another that might be of lesser quality. Fourth, it can be useful as an assurance to your users that what you are doing is of good quality.
How this is to be implemented must be decided on a case-by-case basis. Some projects may only need a short blurb describing the nature of the project. Some will find detailed explanations necessary for their contributors and users.