Open Licensing Explained
Just because something is free doesn't mean it is open, so what qualifies as an Open Educational Resource? It all boils down to copyright. Even if something is freely available online, it isn't an OER if it has a traditional, "all-rights-reserved" copyright. However, if the material is in the public domain, or has a license allowing adaptation and sharing, then it qualifies as an OER.
Creative Commons Licenses
Creative Commons offers free, user-friendly copyright licenses. These licenses simplify how you share your creative work with the public, allowing you to retain copyright while permitting others to share, adapt, and even build upon your work, with options for non-commercial use and clear attribution. Below are a few of the licenses, and their explanations, from the Creative Commons website:
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. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.
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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. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.
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Attribution-NoDerivs
CC BY-ND
This license lets others reuse the work for any purpose, including commercially; however, it cannot be shared with others in adapted form, and credit must be provided to you.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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We also provide tools that work in the “all rights granted” space of the public domain. Our CC0 tool allows licensors to waive all rights and place a work in the public domain, and our Public Domain Mark allows any web user to “mark” a work as being in the public domain.
Open License Tools
- License ChooserThis tool asks questions to help determine what Creative Commons license is most appropriate for your work.
- Open Attribution BuilderFillable form that generates an attribution for the type of licensed work you are referencing.