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Rights & licence labels
The Sacred Library / Rights & licences
What the rights labels mean
Every resource in the library carries a label describing what the source says about reusing it. They are deliberately conservative: where a work's status is unclear, it is marked link-only rather than assumed to be free. Labels describe the source's terms as we understand them and are not legal advice.
| Label | What it means | In this library |
|---|---|---|
| PUBLIC DOMAIN | The underlying work is free of US copyright restrictions according to the source. Copyright terms differ between countries, and the archive publishing the edition may still have its own terms for that edition. | 70 resources |
| LINK ONLY | We link to the source rather than reproducing the work. An old text may be out of copyright while the modern transcription, translation or annotation of it is not. | 32 resources |
| CREATIVE COMMONS | Reusable under a Creative Commons licence, with conditions attached. The specific licence is shown on each resource. | 18 resources |
| FREE OFFICIAL RESOURCE | Published free to read by the organisation responsible for it. Free to read is not the same as public domain: the organisation keeps its copyright. | 15 resources |
| RIGHTS VARY BY ITEM | A collection holding material of differing copyright status. Check the individual item rather than assuming the collection's status applies to it. | 12 resources |
| CC0 | Released with no copyright restrictions asserted. Broad reuse is allowed; citing the source is still good scholarly practice. | 1 resources |
| FREE TO READ | Free to read at the source. Check item-level rights before reusing any of it. | 1 resources |
The workbook's licence guide
The directory this library is built from records the following guidance for each licence type it uses.
| Licence | What it means | Recommended action |
|---|---|---|
| Public domain in the USA | The underlying work is free of US copyright restrictions. Project Gutenberg still asks users to follow its trademark/license terms when redistributing its own files. | Safest option for downloads and quotations. For non-US readers, note that local copyright terms can differ. |
| CC0 1.0 | No copyright restrictions asserted; broad reuse is allowed. | You may copy, adapt, and redistribute. Still cite the source as good scholarly practice. |
| CC BY-NC 4.0 | Reuse is allowed with attribution, but not for commercial purposes. | On a commercial store/blog, link to the source. Ask permission before republishing substantial material. |
| CC BY-NC-ND | Attribution required; noncommercial only; no derivatives. | Link to the original. Do not adapt, remix, or republish on a commercial site without permission. |
| Rights vary by item | A collection contains material with different copyright statuses. | Check the individual item before offering a download. Linking to the collection is generally the safest approach. |
| Copyrighted official site content | The organization makes pages free to read but does not place them in the public domain. | Link to the official page. Quote only short portions with attribution and within applicable law. |
| Historical/educational access; editorial rights vary | The underlying old text may be public domain, but the modern transcription, translation, annotations, or site edition may have separate rights. | Link to the hosted edition unless the specific page grants reuse rights. |
We host nothing. Every entry links to the archive, publisher or organisation responsible for the work. Nothing is mirrored here, and no file is re-published, whatever its licence — the library is a way of finding things, not a copy of them.
These labels describe what each source states about its own material, as we understand it. They are not legal advice, and copyright terms differ between countries. If you intend to republish or adapt something, check with the source first.