The Basics of Open Licenses, Copyright, and Fair Use

As discussed in the introduction, the most important element of an open educational resource is the open license, which an author adds to a piece of content to tell others how they can use it. Here's why these licenses are so important...

Copyright

Copyright limits a user's ability to modify, re-use, share, or copy content. Under copyright, here are the rights of the user, as compared to the rights of the publisher: 

Table comparing the usage rights under copyright
Publisher's rights under Copyright User's rights under Copyright
The right to copy.
 The right to use only the purchased copy for one's personal use. 
The right to distribute copies.
The right to make derivatives.
The right to sell the original or derivatives for a profit. 

 

Open Licenses

In contrast to copyright, open licenses such as Creative Commons licenses allow authors and publishers to decide which rights they want to share with users. Creative Commons provides the legal framework for OER. Creative Commons has written the terms for a series of licenses that you can add to your own work, telling people how they may use what you have created.

Table comparing the usage rights under a CC BY license
Publisher's rights under a CC BY license User's rights under a CC BY license (one of six CC license options)
The right to copy.
 The right to copy.
The right to distribute copies.
 The right to distribute copies.
The right to make derivatives.
 The right to make derivatives.
The right to sell the original or derivatives for a profit. 
 The right to sell the original or derivatives for a profit. 
The right to receive credit as the author. 

An important part of all of the licenses (except for public domain) is attribution. If someone uses your materials in any way, they must give you credit for them. This creates a more positive community of sharing and ensures that people gain visibility for their work.  

In the end, it is up to you to choose how you want people to be able to use your materials. Creative Commons licenses range from very permissive to very restrictive.

  Creative Commons licenses spectrum  

  1. For a description of each license, see the About CC Licenses page Links to an external site. of Creative Commons' website. For more details about the licenses and OER in general, we recommend you read the LangOER guide Links to an external site..
  2. If you have specific questions about licensing, it's likely they will be answered on the Creative Commons website's FAQ page Links to an external site.. 
  3. Remember, you can always ask a librarian at your school or institution (scholarly communications librarians and dedicated OER librarians are specifically qualified to answer these questions, or you may consider asking your subject matter librarian). 

 

Fair Use

Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment in a certain limited capacity. We encourage educators to try to find openly licensed content to include in their resources. We also acknowledge that sometimes the most appropriate content to help students meet your learning objectives may be a copyrighted resource. If you are going to rely on fair use, it’s essential that you first understand the fair use guidelines. You must be able to explain the “specific teaching or learning value of each incorporated [copyrighted] item and why it represents the best choice for the intended purpose”, as stated in the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OER Links to an external site., written by the American University Washington School of Law and licensed under CC BY 4.0.

▹▹▹ Read more on page: Incorporating Copyright content into your course legally  

 

Public Domain

Certain content is in the Public Domain, which means you may use it however you'd like without even attributing the author. Content is in the public domain either because it was created a long time ago and the author is now deceased, or because the author specifically chose to make their work available in the public domain. This Public Domain Slider by the American Library Association Copyright Advisory Network Links to an external site. helps you determine if something is in the public domain (if it isn't labeled as such). 

 

 

 

Check your knowledge

Knowledge check question is a modified version of a question by William Meinke, published in the online book University of Hawai'i OER Training Course Links to an external site. and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

 

 

Go to the next page to learn about attributing open content you use.