Introduction to Copyright and Creative Commons Licenses for the Go Open digital roundtable series

1. COPYRIGHT, OPEN LICENSING &
CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSES
Meredith Jacob
Bilan Jama
Creative Commons United States
American University Washington College of Law
Except where noted, all slides licensed CC-BY
4.0 by Creative Commons United States

2. • Introduction
• OER  CC licenses  Copyright
• Copyright Basics
• Creative Commons Licenses
• Using OER
• Authoring OER
• Questions
WHAT WE’LL COVER

3. Open Educational Resources (OER) are
educational materials that are released
under an open copyright license, rather than
under traditional all rights reserved
copyright.
OER

4. Just like traditional teaching materials, OER
can be:
• Textbooks
• Articles
• Slides
• Images
• Videos
• Simulations
In print or digital formats (or dance or song,
etc!)
CC LICENSE ON ALL TYPES
OF WORKS

5. Unlike traditional educational materials, OER
have been released under an open copyright
license that allows users to:
• Update and remix
• Translate
• Share new versions
• Post online
With clear legal rights rather than tolerated (or
private) use
FORMAL VS. TOLERATED
USES OF COPYRIGHTED WORKS

6. The purpose of copyright in the United
States draws from Art. 1 Sec. 8, Clause 8,
where it states that Congress shall have the
power:
“to promote the progress of science and the
useful art, by securing for authors and
inventors the exclusive right to their
respective writings and discoveries”
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF
COPYRIGHT?

7. Copyright is intended to incentivize authors
(and other creators) to write and to invest in
making new creative works.
This view of copyright exists in the United
States and other common law countries that
draw from British legal tradition
COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED TO
INCENTIVIZE AUTHORS

8. Copyright law grants to the author or copyright
owner the exclusive right to:
• reproduce, make derivatives of, sell,
distribute to the public, perform or display
publicly, the copyrighted work,
• subject to fair use and other limitations and
exceptions to copyright law.
Copyright owners may assign all the rights in
their copyright, or give limited licenses that
allow others to make specific use of their
works.
WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?

9. Copyright law applies to intellectual property that are
“original works of authorship.”
• Common types of works protected by copyright
include literary, artistic, and musical works.
• Copyright is automatic, so it applies as soon as
the work has been created.
Copyright protection in the United States lasts for the
life of the author plus 70 years or 95 years for an
institutional author. After this time period has expired,
works fall into the public domain and are free from
copyright restrictions.
WHAT DOES COPYRIGHT
PROTECT?

10. There are a number of exceptions and
limitations to copyright.
Functional concepts, names, and logos are
typically covered by patent or trademark law,
if protected at all, rather than copyright.
Copyright protects the specific expression of
a work - the words - but not the underlying
idea.
ARE THERE LIMITS TO WHAT
COPYRIGHT PROTECTS?

11. NOTHING
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO
GET A COPYRIGHT?

12. Ok, something. But not much. You just
have to fix your work in a tangible medium.
So you have to write it down, or take a
picture, or save it to electronic memory.
Then that’s it. Nothing to register, nothing to
file. You work just has to exist in a
permanent way that can be perceived by
others.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO TO
GET A COPYRIGHT?

13. The public domain contains works that are
copyrightable, but are not currently protected
by copyright. These include:
• Works where the copyright has expired
• Works that are in the public domain because
of statute, such as works that are created by
US federal employees in the course of their
employment
• Works dedicated to the public domain via
CC0
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

14. Fair use allows the use of a copyrighted work
without permission from the copyright holder
under specific circumstances.
News reporting, teaching, and parody are all
examples of uses that could qualify as fair use.
Fair use is evaluated on a case-by-case basis,
and considers the purpose of the use, how
much of the original work is used, and how it
impacts the market for the original work.
WHAT ABOUT FAIR USE?

15. COPYRIGHT EVALUATION
Currently
protected by
Copyright Law?
YES
Fair use or other
copyright
limitation?
Creative
Commons
Licensed
Insitutional
license or
subscription
Allowed free
classroom use
(not open license)
NO
Public Domain
Idea (not
expression)

16. • Works within the copyright system
• Author still holds copyright to the work
• Traditional licenses are one to one
(negotiated)
• Open licenses like the Creative Commons
licenses are one to the public/one to many
WHAT IS AN OPEN LICENSE?

17. Advantages
• Takes advantage digital distribution and
authorship
• Ability to improve, remix, and translate
• Makes informal reuse formally permissible
(and possible on the open internet)
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF
AN OPEN LICENSE?

18. • Clearly communicates to the public that
the resource is free to reuse
• Grants the public a license to access,
reproduce, publicly perform, publicly
display, adapt, distribute, and otherwise
use for any purposes
• provided that the licensee gives attribution
to the designated authors of the
intellectual property.
WHAT DOES A CREATIVE
COMMONS LICENSE DO?

19. WHY AN OPEN LICENSE?

20. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
THE CC LICENSE MARK AND LINK

21. THE HUMAN READABLE VERSION

22. THE LEGAL TEXT

23. There are six types of CC licenses:
TYPES OF CC LICENSES

24. MARKING YOUR WORK
© 2013 by CCSSO. Operational Best
Practices for Statewide Large-Scale Assessment Programs
2013 Edition is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 it is available at
http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Publications/Operational_
Best_Practices_for_Statewide_Large-
Scale_Assessment_Programs.html

25. BY – Attribution
• Shared by all the license
• In the place that copyright notice is
normally given
• As requested by the author
LICENSE TERMS

26. Open Educational Resources and Creative
Commons Licenses by Meredith Jacob,
slideshare.net/Meredith Jacob under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
(CC BY)
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ATTRIBUTION EXAMPLE

27. SA – Share Alike
• Any new derivative work must be released
under the same license
– Is there a derivative work?
– Is it possible to use a single license?
LICENSE TERMS

28. When you reuse materials in combination,
you have to decide if you are creating an
adaptation.
Things that are an adaptation
- A remix that contains segments of content
combined into a new work
- Edited and/or combined images
REUSING AND REMIXING
OER

29. When you reuse materials in combination,
you have to decide if you are creating an
adaptation.
Things that are generally not an adaptation:
- A compilation or playlist of content and
excerpts from content
- Setting unedited images for illustration
along side narrative text
REUSING AND REMIXING
OER

30. “Explaining ND Licenses with Steampunk Space Rhinos” by Meredith Jacob under a CC BY 4.0 License. Original
mages used in clockwise order from upper right are (1) “Cable Green” by David Kidler from Flickr under a CC By
2.0 License (2)”Hubble Views ‘Third Kind’ of Galaxy” by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from Flickr under a CC
By 2.0 License (3) “View of the Americas on 12.13.14” by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from Flickr under a
CC By 2.0 License (4)”A unicorn with curves?” by Mark Gunn from Flickr under a CC By 2.0 License ”Look to the
Stars” by davidd from Flickr under a CC By 2.0 License. Original images were re-sized, color-altered and
stamped with the CC logo to create this new work.
THIS IS DEFINITELY AN
ADAPTATION

31. NC – Non Commercial
• Not directed primarily towards commercial
purpose
• Does not depend on the status of the user
LICENSE TERMS - NC

32. ND – No Derivatives
• The license does not allow users to make
derivatives
• Does not apply to setting images
alongside text (including resizing)
LICENSE TERMS - ND

33. • creativecommonsusa.org
• creativecommons.org
• mjacob@wcl.american.edu
• bjama@wcl.american.edu
• slideshare.net/MeredithJacob
OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN MORE