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Any user that contributes to MusicBrainz should be aware that their contributions will be made available to the public under the licenses described below. Furthermore, MusicBrainz users give theMetaBrainz Foundation the right to license this data for commercial use. The income from these licenses keeps MusicBrainz running and covers the paychecks of paid MusicBrainz developers.

MusicBrainz Database

TheMusicBrainz Database is split into two components for licensing purposes.

Core data

The core data of the database is licensed under theCC0, which is effectively placing the data into the Public Domain. This means that anyone can download and use the core data in any way they see fit. No restrictions, no worries!

Supplementary data

The remaining portions of the database are released under the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license. This allows for non-commercial use of the data as long as MusicBrainz is given credit and that derivative works (works based on the CC licensed data) are also made available under the same license.

For a breakdown of what constitutes core/supplementary data, view theMusicBrainz Database page.

Live Data Feed

TheLive Data Feed replication packets are licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license.

MusicBrainz Server

TheMusicBrainz Server source code is licensed under theGPLv2.

MusicBrainz Documentation

The MusicBrainz documentation onhttp://wiki.musicbrainz.org/ (and mirrored onhttp://musicbrainz.org/doc/) is released under the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license. This allows non commercial use of the documentation as long as MusicBrainz is given credit and that derivative works (works based on the CC licensed data) are also made available under the same license.

The documentation uses content from the following sources:

• ThenuoveXT icon theme made by Alexandre Moore and available under the GPL license.

Cover art

The MusicBrainz dataset does not contain cover art. Cover art is provided by theCover Art Archive.