A brief overview of Copyright Law and the Creative Commons for creating Open Educational Resources (OERs) conducted as part of the 2014 Immersion Training for the Emory Open Education Initiative.

1. Copyright and Creative
Commons
Melanie T. Kowalski
Emory Open Education Initiative Immersion Training
May 15, 2014

2. By the end of this session you should…
• Have a basic understanding of copyright
protection
• Know how to seek copyright permission
• Know how to find works licensed under the
Creative Commons
• Know how to apply a Creative Commons
License to your own work
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3. Copyright Law - A quick overview
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4. What is copyright?
“The Congress shall have Power To….promote the
Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing
for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the
exclusive Right to their respective Writings and
Discoveries”
US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8
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5. What are the “rights” in Copyright?
 The rights of the copyright owner are:
 To reproduce the work
 To prepare derivative works
 To distribute copies of the work
 To publicly perform the work
 To publicly display the work directly or by
telecommunication
 To publicly perform a sound recording by digital
means
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6. Original works of authorship fixed in a
tangible medium of expression
What does Copyright Protect?

7. What doesn’t Copyright Protect?
• Works not protected by copyright include:
– Titles, names, short phrases, slogans
– Facts, news and discoveries
– Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes
(however, these may be patentable)
– Works lacking a modicum of originality (e.g. a phone
book in alphabetical order)
– Works created by the U.S. government
– Useful articles (such as clothing)
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8. Duration of the Copyright protection
• Copyright law grants exclusive rights to
copyright owners
– Term of copyright is currently life of the author + 70
years
– Copyright notice ( © ) is not required
– When copyright expires, work enters the public
domain
• To maintain balance, © Law has several
exemptions (Ex. Fair Use)
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9. Copyright Exemptions
• Classroom Use Exemption – Section 110 (1)
• TEACH Act Exemption – Section 110 (2)
• Fair Use – Section 107
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10. Copyright Exemption - Fair Use
 Balancing test, comprised of four factors:
 Purpose and Character
 Nature of the copyright work
 Amount of the use
 Effect on the market or potential market for the
copyrighted work
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11. How to Obtain Permission
• Identify the © owner
• Contact the © owner in writing and include:
– Exact material to be used
– Intended use of the material
– Form of publication
For OERs = unrestricted audience for an unlimited time
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12. Permissions Help?
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Bielstein, Susan M. Permissions, a Survival Guide: Blunt Talk about
Art as Intellectual Property. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2006.

13. When Permission Isn’t Needed
• Work is in the public domain
– US Federal Government document
– Published in US prior to 1923
– Published in a foreign country prior to 1909
• Creative Commons licenses
• When you are the creator and have retained the
rights to re-publish
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14. Using Licensed Materials
• Database user agreements (licenses)
– Allows faculty, staff, and students access to content of
databases
– Fine when providing links to Emory students
– Not fine when providing links to non-Emory students
FOR OERS: NO SUBSCRIPTION = NO ACCESS
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15. The Creative Commons License
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16. What are the Creative Commons?
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“C-Clones or Creative Commons” by Kristina Alexanderson; This image is being used
under a CC-BY-NC-SA license.

17. What are the Licenses
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Attribution
CC-BY
Attribution-NoDerivs
CC-BY-ND
Attribution-ShareAlike
CC-BY-SA
Attribution-
NonCommercial
CC-BY-NC
Attribution-
NonCommercial-
ShareAlike
CC-BY-NC-SA
Attribution-
NonCommercial-No
Derivs
CC-BY-NC-ND
“No Rights Reserved” Public Domain Mark

18. Applying a CC License to your work
• If your original content, use CC Choose a
License Tool
http://creativecommons.org/choose/
• If remix of content, use OER IPR Support
Creative Commons License Compatibility
Wizards -
http://www.web2rights.com/OERIPRSupport/cre
ativecommons/
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19. Creative Commons Exercise
creativecommons.org/choose/
Scenario: I have created a video for my OER textbook. The
video includes original content that I created. I want to
share the video with the world using a Creative Commons
License. I do want people to be able to remix it, quote it, or
create other works with it, as long as they also share their
work openly too. I do not care if someone profits from their
use of the video.
Which CC License should I choose??
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20. Searching for CC Licensed Content
search.creativecommons.org
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21. Using CC Licensed Content
• Proper Creative Commons attribution should
include:
– The name or user ID of the creator
– The title of the work, if any
– The Creative Commons license under which the
original work is available
– A reproduction of any copyright notices the creator
included
– If you’ve made a derivative work, an identification that
your work is derivative
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22. Example:
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“Moses…” by Giovanni (giopup @ flickr); This image
is being used under a CC-BY-SA license.

23. Let the Q & A commence!
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