3.7 Choosing a CC License
Lauri M. Aesoph
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Identify and apply appropriate Creative Commons licenses while respecting existing licensing restrictions.
- Attribute Creative Commons-licensed works and differentiate between open, public domain, and copyrighted content.
License Terms
Copyright and copyright laws in the United States help protect different types of intellectual property. This is further explained by the Library of Congress’ website on the basics and history of copyright. Creators or copyright holders who wish to apply Creative Commons licenses to their work can choose to allow their work to be copied and reused with any one or more restrictions. They can also choose certain combinations of restrictions that expand the use of their work in other projects. The cardinal rule is to make sure the restrictions on top of the original copyright are followed.
If you are adapting an existing open textbook, the adaptations you make will be released with whatever open license you choose, while the rest of the book will be released under the license of the original book. In other words, you need to respect the license of the original work. You cannot license what you do not create. You can only attach a CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution) or other open license to the parts of the book that you created and are new.
Note: As an author of a resource, it is your responsibility to ensure that you follow all license terms and that you do not infringe on the copyrights of others. However, there is a caveat. If the textbook you are adapting has a ShareAlike condition (e.g., CC BY-SA 4.0) stipulated, then you must release the entire book using the same license as the original book.
The Different Creative Commons Licenses
Creative Commons offers six different licenses that allow copyright holders to apply different restrictions to how their work may be reused. When using a specific CC-licensed work, it is important to pay attention to the CC license and its restrictions. All Creative Commons licenses require attribution. These licenses are probably the most common open licenses that you will encounter. There are seven licenses in total, which come with different combinations of restrictions:
- Attribution: This requires you to attribute (give credit to) the original creator.
- ShareAlike: This requires you to use the same license for any work that you create based on their original work.
- NonCommercial: This restricts you from profiting off of their work.
- NoDerivatives: This restricts you from making any changes to their work.
Creative Commons offers a tool to help you choose a license, aptly named Choose a License. This tool helps with both licensing and proper attribution. We have included a link to a tutorial video that helps guide you through the steps of using the tool.
All Creative Commons licenses require that users of the work attribute the creator. When providing attribution to a CC-licensed work, you should include:
- The author’s name, screen name, user ID, etc. If the work is being published on the Internet, it is best practice to link that name to the person’s profile page, if such a page exists.
- The work’s title or name (if applicable), if such a thing exists. If the work is being published on the Internet, it is best practice to link the name or title directly to the original work.
- The specific type of license the work is available under. Linking to the license will allow others to find the license terms.
- The URL where the work is hosted.
- Mention if the work is a derivative work or adaptation. In addition to the above, one needs to identify that their work is a derivative work, i.e., “This is a Finnish translation of [original work] by [author].” or “Screenplay based on [original work] by [author].”
- The below video on creating OER and combining licenses is intended to help you choose compatible open educational resources (OER) and then a valid license for your work. (Video length is 9 minutes 15 seconds.)
- The National Copyright Unit and Creative Commons Australia have jointly developed the Creative Commons Information Pack for teachers and students. The pack explains what CC is, how to find CC material, and the best way to attribute CC material.
Public Domain
When copyright expires (in the USA, this is 90 years after the death of the creator), the work enters the public domain. This means that anyone is allowed to use the work without obtaining permission, but no one can own it. Some creators choose to place or “dedicate” their works to the public domain. For this, Creative Commons has created the CC0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Works in the public domain may be included in an open resource. Although they don’t legally require attribution, you should still attribute public domain and CC0 content so others using your resource know where you retrieved the content from. See the section on Captions, Citation and Attribution for more information.
For a more detailed look at how to attribute CC resources, review Captions, Citations and Attributions and Creative Commons’ Best Practices for Attributing Content. This latter resource has examples of how to correctly attribute different types of CC-licensed content.
Non-Openly Licensed Content (All Rights Reserved)
Content that is not openly licensed, meaning it is “all rights reserved,” is covered by the regular terms and restrictions of copyright law. As such, it cannot be included in an open resource except under the following exceptions:
- Linking: You may link to external websites from within your open resource.
- Embedding: You may embed media (video, audio, etc.) that are hosted on an external site by the copyright holder within your open resource. If embedding, you will need to attribute the content (See Captions, Citations and Attributions). Note that some creators restrict embedding, in which case their resources may not be included.
- Fair Use: This is an exception in the Copyright Act that allows you to use all rights reserved material for the purpose of research, private study, education, satire, parody, criticism, review, or news reporting, provided that what you do with the work is “fair.” Unfortunately, the Copyright Act does not define what counts as “fair.” It is a subjective evaluation based on a number of factors (how much is used, how many copies, commercial/non-commercial, etc). For more information on how you might use Fair Use to incorporate all rights reserved content into your OER, see the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources [PDF].
Additional Resources
The Creating OER and Combining Licenses – Full video by TheOGRepository is used under a CC BY license.
Media Attributions
- creative-commons-783531_1280
