Copyright and other licensing structures are designed with different goals in mind, but an underlying commonality is that they tell the user what they can do with the item. As both a creator and a user of open resources, you should be conversant in the basics of copyright and Creative Commons licenses.

U.S. Copyright Basics

In the United States, copyright is automatic. Once you finish a work, all rights to that work are assigned to the creator. (There are some exceptions for specific circumstances, which you can read more about on the U.S. Copyright website.) The phrase “all rights” is conventionally understood to include making, distributing, and/or selling copies and public reading or exhibition.

Fair Use

In order to facilitate education and other uses that promote the public good, there are rules providing exceptions to the copyright that are collectively known as the “fair use exception”. Fair use is not a hard-and-fast rule, but a set of criteria that are used in the event of a legal challenge to determine if a specific usage of a specific item is permissible. These criteria are: 

1. Purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. Nature of the copyrighted work
3. Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2001 by Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, Computer Science professor Hal Ableson, and Engineer and literacy enthusiast Eric Eldred. Their goal was to encourage open culture by providing alternatives to the “all rights reserved” approach to copyright. In 2002, they launched the first Creative Commons licenses, which provide the legal framework for returning some rights to users, according to the desire of the creator/rights holder.

The Creative Commons licensing schema is made up of four elements that creators can mix and match to create the licensing conditions of their choice. These elements are:

• Attribution (users must credit the rights-holder)
• Non-commercial (users must not use the item for commercial gain)
• No-derivatives (users may not make changes to the item)
• Share-alike (users may make changes but must maintain the original licensing conditions for all derivative works)

For more information on licenses, visit the Creative Commons website.

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Creating Attributions

Information Wiki on best attribution practices

You can also review the key slides on copyright and Creative Commons from session 2 of our seminar.

Video Overview

We shared this video with participants during Session 2. (Note that a portion of it is specific to New Zealand)