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Open Educational Resources for Faculty

Licenses

copyright symbol U.S. copyright law protects a creator's rights over their original works. So when textbooks are written or a painting is made, the work is automatically protected by copyright. However, an author/artist/etc. can opt to publish their work with an open license that allows free sharing of their work.

An open license is an essential part of an open educational resource. It is a license which grants permission for all users to access, reuse, and redistribute a work with few or no restrictions. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that provides licenses and public domain tools to address the legal issues surrounding copyright and enable the sharing of open resources. 

Creative Commons Licenses

There are 6 types of licenses overseen by Creative Commons:

CC BY​

Allows distribution, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any way so long as attribution is provided, including for commercial use.​

 

CC BY-SA​

Allows distribution, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any way so long as attribution is provided, including for commercial use. ​

Adaptations must be shared under the same terms.​

 

CC BY-NC​  

Allows distribution, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any way so long as attribution is provided, for non-commercial purposes only​

CC BY-NC-SA​

Allows distribution, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any way so long as attribution is provided, for non-commercial purposes only​

Adaptations must be shared under the same terms.​

CC BY-ND​

Allows copy and distribution of material in any medium, in un-adapted form only, with attribution, including commercial use.​

CC BY-NC-ND​

Allows copy and distribution of material in any medium, in un-adapted form only, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes only.​

CC 0​

Work is in the public domain, it may be used, remixed, shared with no conditions, including no attribution necessary.​

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Creative Commons. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.​

There are two restrictions that are important to note when using Creative Commons Licenses:

  1. Once a CC License has been applied to a work, it may not be revoked. This allows users to be confident that the CC licensed resources they are using are indeed open access.
  2. To apply a CC license, you must be the copyright owner. If a work is created within the scope of a job, always check the contract to see whether you as the individual or the company is the copyright holder. 

In order to apply a CC license to your created work:​

  • For digitally published work, use the CC License Chooser: ​

  • For printed works, include language:​

    • © 2019. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.

It is important to note, when reusing, remixing, revising, or redistributing a CC licensed resource, one must include attribution to the original work, including specifying which CC license was applied to the work.