Presentation by Dr. Sanjaya Mishra on 26 May 2014 at the "Round table on Implementation of OER Policy: The Way Forward" organised by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt of India.

1. Commonwealth Educational
Media Centre for Asia
NMEICT Open Licensing Policy
Guidelines

2. NKC Recommendation, 2007
 Recognised the role of Open Educational
Resources (OER) in the knowledge economy
and to up-grade the quality of education.
 “an enabling legal framework that would
allow unrestricted access without
compromising intellectual authorship must be
devised for this purpose”

3. Defining Open Educational Resources
“teaching, learning and research materials in
any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside
in the public domain or have been released
under an open license that permits no-cost
access, use, adaptation and redistribution by
others with no or limited restrictions. Open
licensing is built within the existing framework
of intellectual property rights as defined by
relevant international conventions and respects
the authorship of the work” (OER Paris Declaration, 2012)

4. OER Paris Declaration 2012
“Encourage the open licensing of educational
materials produced with public funds.
Governments/competent authorities can create substantial
benefits for their citizens by ensuring that educational
materials developed with public funds be made available
under open licenses (with any restrictions they deem
necessary) in order to maximize the impact of the
investment”.

5. NMEICT Open License Philosophy
 Release of learning resources, software and technology
in an appropriate open license regime would foster an
environment of openness, collaboration, and a culture of
sharing, reuse and adaptation amongst institutions and
teachers to enhance the quality of education in the
country.
 Learners will have easy access to digital and non-digital
resources available either freely or at a low cost.
 Teachers in remote areas will have access to quality
resources and can contextualise the materials without
worrying about prior permissions and copyright issues.

6. Principles of Openness
 All information products (content, software and technology) shall be
treated as national resource. Unless specifically declared, all such
information shall be freely accessible the general public through the Web.
 Community engagement shall be a part of all activities, and use read-write
tools available on the web shall be encouraged.
 Information and knowledge resources generated shall be made available in
a persistent permanent basis freely to all through the Web.
 Information creation/authoring and dissemination shall be done using
commonly accepted standards in such a way so as to encourage
discoverability, and capture relevant metadata to promote sharing.
 While the moral rights of the creator will remain with the original
contributor, all intellectual property rights (IPR) shall be transferred
(actually remains automatically as per Copyright law) to the Govt of India
to enable it to be released in an appropriate open license.
 All information and knowledge resources shall be released in a suitable
open license to optimise social and economic value of the investment.

7. Guidelines
 CC BY-SA is the default license adopted by
NMEICT
 Applies to all knowledge resources, that will
be available on a single platform
permanently
 Software developed to be released as Open
Source

8. What CC BY-SA means?
You are free to:
 Share — copy and redistribute the material in
any medium or format
 Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon
the material for any purpose, even
commercially.
 The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as
long as you follow the license terms.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

9. Conditions of CC BY-SA
 Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide
a link to the license, and indicate if changes were
made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not
in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or
your use.
 ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the
material, you must distribute your contributions under
the same license as the original.
 No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal
terms or technological measures that legally restrict
others from doing anything the license permits.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

10. Implications
 Huge amount of learning materials available for reuse
 No permission needed for reuse and adaptation within
the license conditions
 CC BY-SA license implies, the derivatives/adaptation can
be used for commercial gain
 The derivative so produced need to be released in same
license (CC BY-SA)
 Adapted version can be in varieties of forms, including
books, CD, and in mobile devices.
 License is terminated automatically, if the conditions are
not met.

11. Questions for Discussion
 What are the challenges in adopting the
materials of NMEICT?
 What can be done with the existing
resources?
 What kinds of innovation possible and/or
visualised for experimentation?
 Can private sector entrepreneurs make use of
the resources to add value?

12. Explanations
(a) “adaptation” means,—
(i) in relation to a dramatic work, the conversion of the work into a
non-dramatic work;
(ii) in relation to a literary work or an artistic work, the conversion of
the work into a dramatic work by way of performance in public or
otherwise;
(iii) in relation to a literary or dramatic work, any abridgement of the
work or any version of the work in which the story or action is
conveyed wholly or mainly by means of pictures in a form suitable for
reproduction in a book, or in a newspaper, magazine or similar
periodical;
(iv) in relation to a musical work, any arrangement or transcription of
the work; and
(v) in relation to any work, any use of such work involving its re-
arrangement or alteration;

13. Explanations
Non-commercial means "primarily intended for
or directed toward commercial advantage or
monetary compensation."
Please note:
 Commercial use is not always for profit (you
can also have loss)
 Non-profit organisations also gain profit
through commercial engagements

14. Examples of Publishers using
Creative Commons
 Bloomsbury Academic (CC BY-NC)
 Open Humanities Press (CC BY)
 Hindawi Publishing (CC BY)
 Public Library of Science (CC BY)
 BioMed Central (CC BY)
 Copernicus Publications (CC BY)
 Open Book Publishers (CC BY)
 Pratham Books (CC BY and CC BY-SA)

15. Thank YOU