LibGuides: Open Educational Resources: Copyright and Fair Use

Creative Commons License Types

Licensing through Creative Commons gives authors, artists, and other content creators the opportunity to share their creative work with "some rights reserved," meaning that the material is available to be used by others, but only under the conditions set forth by the type of license applied.

The following are the main features that can be be applied to creative works using a Creative Commons license:

Creative Commons License Features
Feature	Description
Attribution	Others can copy, distribute, display, perform and remix your work if they credit your name as requested by you
No Derivative Works	Others can only copy, distribute, display or perform verbatim copies of your work
Share Alike	Others can distribute your work only under a license identical to the one you have chosen for your work
Non-Commercial	Others can copy, distribute, display, perform or remix your work, but for non-commercial purposes only

(From Creative Commons at https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/licensing-types-examples/)

Combine license features to allow for the rights you would like to make available for your creative work. The following are the six main licenses offered with a Creative Commons license:

Types of Creative Commons License
Features	License Type and Description
	Attribution (CC BY) This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation.
	Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
	Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND) This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.
	Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
	Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

(From Creative Commons at https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/licensing-types-examples/licensing-examples/)

Copyright

Copyright Basics (U.S. Copyright Office)
This document from the United States Copyright Office is intended to provide readers with a basic understanding of copyright.
Copyright Basics Video (Copyright Clearance Center)
This brief video from the Copyright Clearance Center provides an overview of U.S. copyright law.

Public Domain

The public domain refers to everything that is not protected by copyright. Essentially, items in the public domain are owed by the public and not by any one individual creator. Items typically fall into the public domain for one of the following reasons:

the copyright has expired
the copyright owner failed to follow copyright renewal rules
the copyright owner deliberately places it in the public domain, known as “dedication”
copyright law does not protect this type of work (such as an idea or a fact)

Public Domain Slider
The Public Domain slider is a tool developed by the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy to help determine the copyright status of a work that is first published in the United States.

Fair Use

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, fair use is "a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances." There are four factors that must be considered when evaluating fair use of copyrighted materials:

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

Fair Use Evaluator
While it does not offer any judgment or legal advice on fair use, the Fair Use Evaluator tool "records the information you provide it as well as your own judgment on the fairness of the use," in addition to providing access to information about fair use and copyright.