From when it started, Nupedia was a free content encyclopedia. Bomis, Jimmy Wales' company, was going to get money from adverts on the Nupedia website. At first, the project used a license that was made up by Wales and Sanger. Later, it began using the Nupedia Open Content License. In January 2001, it switched to the GNU Free Documentation License. This was because Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation said they should.