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How To Use Open Source Trivia – Legalities & Realities

Open Trivia

How to Use Open Source Trivia?

Looking to find out how to use open trivia in your website or app? This is a question we often get asked by prospects. Open source trivia content is free so why would anyone pay for similar content? This article addresses this question and offers an definitive appraisal on whether open source trivia content is the right direction for you.

What Is Open Source Trivia Content?

Many Digital publishers consider open source content for their projects. The question is how to use open trivia in a way that benefits your project. Below is a summary of how open source trivia is aggregated and some pros and cons.

1. How is Open Source Trivia Aggregated?

Content is this is offered as “open trivia” is often user generated. This means an individual(s) have written the content and then offer 3rd parties to use the content for free under an ‘open source’ license. In theory, this type of trivia should be free of any copyright so potential publishers can use the content in their project without fear of breaking the law.

2. How Can I Be Sure The Content Is Not Stolen?

Unfortunately there are no guarantees when it comes to using open source content. The open source trivia may have been aggregated with the best of intentions, with multiple users uploading their ‘own’ content to contribute to the database. However, content that is uploaded by users is often owned by someone else and therefore the user has no right to upload it and distribute it under an open source license. You as the publisher will ultimately have the legal issue if you publish content that you do not have the rights to and this sums up the challenge of using open trivia from a commercial perspective.

3. Quality of Content / Verifying the Trivia is Correct?

When using open source content there is no quality control. You will need to QA every question and answer to ensure the content is correct. There is nothing worse than launching a trivia project with inaccurate content. You will turn users off your product and ultimately your trivia game will fail.

4. Where Can I Find Out More Information?

There is a wealth of information available on the legalities of using open source trivia content. We would recommend that you review the topic of ‘open source’ generally and a great starting point is the Open Source Initiative. The Open source DB project claims to have 4,000 “verified” questions – it maybe worth taking a look at the content and even using it for early testing for your project.

Why Is Your Trivia Database Different?

The Question Co is the leading trivia database in the world. The database contains over 450k questions all containing category and difficulty tags. Leading publishers such as Tik Tok, Microsoft, Gameloft and BBC trust The Question Co to power their trivia projects.

1. All Content Is Written By A Professional Writer

We employ over 20 writers who create trivia content for a living. You can be assured that all content is fact checked, well written and engaging. These are your minimum criteria if you want to create a trivia project that users will love.

2. All Trivia Comes With Category & Difficulty Tags

99% of our customers require category tags and difficulty tags. There is a good reason for this as there has not been a successful trivia product that only contains general knowledge content and no difficulty rating. You will not find content that is tagged in open trivia sources.

3. License Agreement

When licensing a trivia database from The Question Co you will be issued a detailed license agreement. This agreement states that The Question Co owns all the content that is being provided and states that you are legally allowed to distribute the trivia in your project. This has several benefits. Firstly, it gives you piece of mind that you are not funding a project that is not legal and secondly, if the product is successful you will have a saleable asset.

4. Industry Insight

The Question Co licenses over 500,000 questions every month and has detailed insight into what users expect from trivia content. When you work with The Question Co, you do not just get access to high quality questions, you will also access knowledge that will help you make a great project.

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Jamie Peters

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