Understanding Open Licensing
Open licensing allows people to legally use, modify, or share copyrighted content. In Canada, authors automatically have copyright for the work they create, which lasts until the work enters the public domain.
Creative Commons (CC) licenses work within copyright law to allow legal exceptions to how a work can be used, giving users permission in advance to use their work and the ability to add limitations to how their work can be used. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. Each of their licenses is represented with a symbol that explains all the rights associated with the resource.
Choosing a License
There are six licenses to choose from, each with different rights and conditions for use. The following is a general outline for how to choose which open license to apply to your work with resources to help you at each stage.
All Creative Commons licenses require attribution.
Attribution (BY) requires users to give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests that you endorse them and their use.
Attribution in open education follows a TASL format: Title, Author, Source and License. If you are using an openly licensed work, this is the information that you need to include to fulfill the attribution requirement. You also need to note if you modified the work yourself (example).
What is the name of the material?
If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don’t worry about it.
Who owns the material?
Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request.
Where can I find it?
Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides.
How can I use it?
You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don’t just say the material is Creative Commons because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY.
If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well.
To see examples of attribution, use the slider on the image below and see how the attribution underneath changes.
Additional Considerations
When you accessed the material originally did it come with any copyright notices; a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties; or a notice of previous modifications? That kind of legal mumbo jumbo is actually pretty important to potential future users of the material. Best practice is to just retain all of that information by copying and pasting such notices into your attribution. Don’t make it any more complicated than it is — just pass on any info you think is important.
Don’t make it too complicated
The license tells you to be reasonable:
You may satisfy the conditions in (1) and (2) above in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means and context in which the Licensed Material is used. For example, it may be reasonable to satisfy some or all of the conditions by retaining a copyright notice, or by providing a URI or hyperlink associated with the Licensed Material, if the copyright notice or webpage includes some or all of the required information.
There is no one right way; just make sure your attribution is reasonable and suited to the medium you’re working with. That being said, you still have to include attribution requirements somehow, even if it’s just a link to an About page that has that info.
This content was adapted from the Introduction to Open Educational Resources by Amanda Grey, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Resources
In addition to the Attribution requirement, there are 3 other requirements that you can choose for how others can use your work:
Share-Alike (SA)
People who want to adapt and then publish their adaptation must publish it with the exact same license that you chose. This limitation ensures that your work stays in the open all the way down the line.
Non-Commercial (NC)
People can’t use your resource for a money-making endeavor. They are allowed to recover costs (e.g. charging for print services) but cannot make a profit.
No Derivatives (ND)
People who adapt or modify your work cannot publish it.
These 3 requirements (plus the Attribution requirement) can be mixed and matched together to create the six licenses below. Note that Share-Alike and No Derivatives cannot be used together.
Resources
Further Reading
Other Open Licenses
While Creative Commons are the most common open licenses used in open education work, there are several other open licenses that you may find during your search for materials to use. They are letting you use their work, but will have their own set of requirements. Be sure to read the terms and conditions page to make sure you are following the rules for use.
Examples of other Open Licenses:
- Canada Open Government Licence – Access information that is disclosed as part of the federal government’s commitment to enhance accountability and transparency.
- Unsplash License – Download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos.
- Pixabay License – Use, modify, or adapt images, videos, music, etc.
- TimeMaps – Not a “license” but the terms and conditions allow for the reproduction of images, maps, text and other resources for non-commercial purposes only and with specific attribution requirements.
Support at KPU
KPU Library is able to help with questions regarding Copyright, Fair Dealing, and Open Licenses.