This section covers intellectual property, or the ownership and control of ideas and information, and various options for declaring or sharing ownership as well as giving credit to others while participating in scholarly discourse. Open Educational Resources (OERs) and how they relate to the main topic at hand are also discussed.
Click on the headings above to access content.
"Hand holding a home key" by Nenad Stojkovic is licensed under CC BY 2.0 DEED.
Creative Commons licenses make creative works "freely available for legal use, sharing, repurposing, and remixing" by "any member of the public." The CC Search search engine lets you "search for free content in the public domain and under Creative Commons licenses. Learn more about CC licenses here."
Search Google for CC licensed images using Tools > Usage Rights > Creative Commons licenses:
There are six different license types, listed from most to least permissive here:
This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. CC BY includes the following elements:
BY: credit must be given to the creator.| CC BY-SA |
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BY: credit must be given to the creator. SA: Adaptations must be shared under the same terms. |
This license enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. CC BY-NC includes the following elements: BY: credit must be given to the creator.
NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.| CC BY-NC-SA |
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| BY: credit must be given to the creator. NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted. SA: Adaptations must be shared under the same terms. |
This license enables reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. CC BY-ND includes the following elements: BY: credit must be given to the creator.
ND: No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted.| CC BY-NC-ND |
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| BY: credit must be given to the creator. NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted. ND: No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted. |
Fair Use allows "the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances." Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright code provides parameters for the legal use of copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder. Broadly speaking, a "fair use" is one where the socially beneficial results of the use outweigh the exclusive rights of the copyright holder. More in-depth information can be found here and here.
There are four factors to consider when determining if use of a work can be considered fair use under the law:
| PURPOSE | What is the purpose and character of the use being considered? |
| AMOUNT | What is the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the work as a whole? |
| NATURE | What is the nature of the copyrighted work? |
| EFFECT | What is the effect of the use on the potential market or value of the copyrighted work? |
Try these tools to assess fair use:
Table and accompanying text modified from https://researchguides.ccc.edu/OER/copyright#s-lg-box-wrapper-25514598
Public Domain "refers to creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it."
There are 4 ways for works to enter the public domain:
There are many subtleties regarding public domain, such as the fact that a collection of works that are in the public domain may be itself copyrighted. Learn more from Stanford Libraries.
The Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication
CC0 (aka CC Zero) is a public dedication tool, which enables creators to give up their copyright and put their works into the worldwide public domain. CC0 enables reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, with no conditions.
What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?
"OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge."
- The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Visit CCC Libraries' OER guide for much more, and more in-depth information.
Why OER?
“Everyone has the right to education ... and higher education shall be equally accessible to all ... .”
-- Article 26, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Textbooks account for a major portion of students' expenses, along with tuition and housing. The cost of textbooks has risen around 90% just in the last two decades, and exponentially more since the early 1970s. Over half of students do not purchase course materials because of the expense or issues with accessibility, which severely impacts performance and retention. And with the current pace of scholarship and the speed of electronic publishing, textbooks can be out of date even before they are are printed. Open Educational Resources (OER) and other freely-available digital resources such as this one support student success without the excessive price tag. OER allows free and expanded access to learning materials, increased flexibility for faculty and students, more current and diverse content, and many more advantages.
Creative Commons licenses are at the heart of the OER movement.
