Advance permission for reuse
Publishing a work online does not automatically authorize translation, adaptation or redistribution. A public license supplies repeatable conditions for those activities while copyright can remain with the right holder.
Open Definition 2.1 requires permissions that include commercial reuse and modification. Attribution and share-alike conditions can qualify; noncommercial-only or no-adaptations restrictions do not meet that definition.
Permissions and usable forms
Legal permission to modify is different from receiving a usable representation. Open Definition addresses machine-readable material and open formats; the software-specific Open Source Definition requires source in its preferred form for modification.
A table image and an editable dataset offer different practical possibilities. Likewise, downloading an executable alone does not establish source availability. Permission and delivery format are separate questions.
Identifying the grant
The license, version and identified material define the grant. Text, photographs and software on one site can carry different notices, including exclusions for third-party material.
Licensing also differs from public-domain status. A license grants permissions under rights that exist; it does not recreate copyright over public-domain elements or remove applicable exceptions.