OER & ZTC: Copyright, Attribution and Creative Commons

One of the important components of utilizing OER is attribution.  Attribution is very much like citing sources -- it is providing credit to the creator of the OER that you are using.  In order to provide correct attribution, you may have to list Creative Commons information, as well as the creator's information.

OER Attribution Resources & Best Practices:

• Creative Commons: On this page, you will find out how to provide correct attributions when utilizing resources licensed through Creative Commons.
• CCC OER: Attributing OER : How to attribute a Creative Commons licensed work? Where should you place attribution?
• ASCCC OERI: Attributions and Licensing
• Attribution Statements for remixed OER content : Basic statements for digital and print OER
• Attribution Tool : Just like a citation generator, this tool from Open Washington helps you format attributions for any OER you utilize (Open Attribution Builder is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Managed by WA SBCTC). 
• Copyright Basics Research Guide (University of South Florida)

In general, Copyright Law prohibits reproducing and distributing copyrighted works. However, the "Fair Use Doctrine" (Section 107) allows a limited amount of copying for purposes such as teaching and scholarship. In determining whether the use made of a work in a particular case is a Fair Use, the factors to be considered include:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes;
2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyright work as a whole; and
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Fair Use & Copyright Resources:

• The Campus Guide to Copyright by the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC): The Campus Guide to Copyright was created by CCC to help students, instructors, faculty, and staff of U.S.-based colleges and universities by offering background information about U.S. copyright law.
• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources (eBook): A guide for authors, adapters and adopters of openly licensed teaching and learning materials.
• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Various Disciplines: From the Center for Media and Social Impact (CMSI)

Association of Research Libraries (ACRL) Resources:

• Library Rights under the U.S. Copyright Act, May 2022
• Summary of Codes for Best Practices
• Fair Use FAQs for Professors
• Fair Use FAQs for Librarians/General Overview

Creative Commons provides creators with a way to manage the copyright permissions of their works, usually with the specific purpose of allowing the reuse and sharing of their material.  Having a Creative Commons license attached to a work signals to others that specific permissions are granted. CC licenses may be applied to any type of work, including educational resources, music, photographs, databases, government and public sector information, and many other types of material.

For information about licensing a work using Creative Commons, check out this page. 

Get Creative! by Creative Commons is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed) .  You can see video on the Creative Commons website.

Creative Commons licensing is at the heart of the OER movement. CC allows creators to specify more flexible forms of copyright that allows "others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of their work."

Look for copyright information (often at the bottom of webpages). Creative Commons licensed material sometimes display clickable icons that indicate the specifics of licensing. Examples:

See the Creative Commons website for more info and to acquire license icons.

• CC Search: Creative Commons tool to assist with identifying resources that have a CC license.
• Finding Creative Commons Materials Using Google (Smartcopying.edu.au)