How to (re)use OER?
When using material or information from others' sources for the generation of OER one needs to be aware of the legal implications.
Am I allowed to use this image and make it publicly available? Which rights are reserved? Am I allowed to modify the material? Under which license should I publish my own OER?
Copyrighted material
The permission to use copyrighted material ("All rights reserved") in the context of teaching is regulated by law and very limited.
For example, up to 15% of copyrighted work can be made available in an online course (e.g. moodle), if access is limited through a password.
In general, it is not only necessary to specify the source and correctly attribute the content to the copyright owner (author, publisher), but also to obtain explicit permission and, usually, to pay for reuse of material in any kind of publication.
However, this section does not aim to explain copyright law. The corresponding sections of the German law text can be found here.
Introductory information about image (copy)rights in teaching is provided on OpenRUB here, here and here (all German).
There exist ways to work around these issues that are described in the following paragraphs.
Public Domain and Creative Commons licenses
Materials created prior to introduction of copyright or whose copyright has expired are in the Public Domain (PD). There are in general no restrictions to utilization of such materials and no attribution needs to be made. Some works that are, for example, considered part of general knowledge are not covered by copyright and are therefore in the PD. Creators can also waive their copyright and dedicate their works to the PD by explicit declaration ("No rights reserved" - CC0, see below).
Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization that offers pre-authorized license agreements to help copyright owners share copyrighted content ("Some rights reserved"). CC licenses offer a clear and convenient way of sharing a creation by, at the same time, defining and indicating the extent and circumstances of (re)use, (re)distribution and modification/adaptation. By this, a regulative framework for open practices such as OER is provided. Click here (English) or here (German) for further information. This more open way of copyright licensing is sometimes referred to as copyleft.
The following images give an overview of the CC licenses with their sub-components enabling graded permissions which will be explicated in the paragraphs below.
At the same time, they serve as examples of appropriate attribution practices for CC licensed work as outlined here and in the following.
Image: Creative commons license spectrum by Shaddim, CC-BY 4.0; original CC license symbols by Creative Commons, CC-BY 4.0
With the help of CC licenses copyright owners can share their works either without any restrictions for further utilization ("No rights reserved" or "All rights waived" - CC0) or by determining that "some rights are reserved" as specified through certain combinations (see images above/below or here) of the following components:
Attribution (BY): The work needs (at least) to be attributed to the creator explicitly (included in all licenses except CC0).
Share alike (SA): New work reusing or incorporating the work needs to
be released under the exact same license terms (CC-BY-SA is equal to copyleft).
NonCommercial (NC): The work can be used for any purpose except a commercial one.
NoDerivatives (ND): No modifications to the original work are allowed without explicit permission.
Icons: attrib.gif, standard.gif, noncomm.gif and nomod.gif by Creative Commons, CC-BY 4.0
The specific combinations of the CC licensing elements as well as the corresponding permissions and restrictions are presented in the images above.
Note: Only resources licensed under CC0, CC-BY and CC-BY-SA count as OER in terms of Free Cultural Works (see also here). Licenses with the components NC or ND are considered too restrictive and conflict with the "four essential freedoms" of Free Culture.
Image: Foter.com_infographic_CC.jpg by Foter, CC-BY 4.0 / cropped from original
Since attributing the works to their creators is an integral part of all the licenses, it is very important to do it correctly.
Very often copyright owners indicate the exact way they want their work to be attributed. This request should be followed.
In general, an appropriate attribution should comprise the following elements:
- Title: Ideally the title is indicated as displayed in the context of the original work. If not provided separately, the filename can be used as title. For online resources a link to the work should be provided.
- Source: The title can be omitted if at least the work's exact source is specified, ideally by providing a link.
- Author: Must not miss. For works from websites like flickr or Wikimedia Commons a link to the user profile page can be included.
→ by Foter
- License: The exact license as indicated in the source should be shown along with a link to the corresponding license deed.
- Modification: If modification of the work is permitted and accordingly conducted, this needs to be indicated along with the attribution.
→ / cropped from original or (cropped from original)
Example (from image above): Foter.com_infographic_CC.jpg by Foter, CC-BY 4.0 / cropped from original
Further good attribution practices are:
- Placing the attribution as close to the (re)used work as possible.
- Providing an attribution for CC0 licensed work even though not necessary.
- In general, making as clear as possible who created the original content (by any means).
There are online tools that help generating attributions automatically:
- Attribution Generator (for images from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons)
- ImageCodr.org (for images from flickr)
- Open Attribution Builder (from openwa.org)
- OpenAttribute (Browser Addon)
Other tools assist in choosing the license for your own work:
- Choose a License (from creativecommons.org)
- choosealicense.com (for software and other works)
- Public License Selector (for software and data)
PLEASE NOTE: (Privacy and data protection)
CC licenses only regulate copyright matters. The requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation must be complied with separately (e.g. with respect to persons on a photo).
Find an introduction to image (copy)rights (German) on OpenRUB.
Useful links
- "Legal Aspects of Open Science" ebook (German) by Till Kreutzer & Henning Lahmann including OER, privacy, data protection and copyright
- Creative Commons Licenses (German)
- Creative Commons Licenses (English)
- Licenses conformant with the Open Definition
- Licenses on Definition of Free Cultural Works
- Attributing Creative Commons Materials
- Best Practices for Creative Commons Attributions on newmediarights.org
- Open Content - A Practical Guide to Using Creative Commons Licences
- "Creative Commons: A User Guide" ebook by Simone Aliprandi
Sources & References
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