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Copyright and Licensing for Open Educational Resources (OER)

Mélanie Brunet, Ph.D., M.I.

Open Education Librarian

Unless otherwise specified, the contents of this presentation are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Description: Are you considering adapting or creating an open educational resource (OER)? What does “open” entail? What happens to your intellectual property? Can you use resources from the Library’s collections for your project? Can you incorporate third-party content protected by copyright and does fair dealing apply? How can you combine content published under different Creative Commons licences? Which licence should you apply to your own OER? Where can you find open content that can be integrated into your resource? This webinar will provide answers to these questions and more to ensure that your resource is indeed open and reusable while respecting copyright.

This webinar will be recorded. The slides will be sent to you in the next few days.

Hi everyone! Thank you for joining me for this webinar copyright and licensing for open educational resources. I’m Mélanie Brunet, the Open Education Librarian at uOttawa.

Please feel free to type your questions in the chat during the webinar. I will be taking some breaks after each section to answer questions. There will also be time at the end after the recording has stopped.

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The information provided in this webinar does not constitute legal advice.

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By the end of this webinar you will:

Know what happens to your copyright when creating open resources (and what “open” means)
Understand open licences, how to apply them, and how to attribute open content
Know how to combine content under different licences
Understand how to legally incorporate content created by others in your project

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Copyright refresher

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Copyright basics

Protects original expression of ideas or facts fixed in a tangible medium
Automatic upon fixation
Law that applies is the one where the use takes place
Duration (in Canada): generally, life of the author + 50 years*
First copyright owner = author but © can be transferred
Free on the Internet ≠ without copyright restrictions

* Life + 70 years by Dec. 31, 2022 for works not yet in the public domain (as per CUSMA)

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Copyright ownership at uOttawa

Default as per Copyright Act: copyright in work created in course of employment belongs to employer

However...

APUO and APTPUO members: retain copyright under respective collective agreements
Students: retain copyright as students but not always as employees (see CUPE 2626 collective agreement)

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Open licences

Creative Commons logo, Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0

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What is a licence?

“A licence allows someone else to use a work for certain purposes and under certain conditions.
The copyright owner still retains ownership.”

Quoted from: A Guide to Copyright (Assignments and Licences), Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)

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Creative Commons licences

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

For more details, visit “About The Licenses” page

Creative Commons Icons, Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0

Creative Commons; not-for-profit organization created in 2001 in the United States, but now has over 45 chapters around the world, including one in Canada.

Only the copyright owner can apply a CC licence because it does not replace copyright, it works with it. It’s a permission and only the copyright can give permission. That also means that when you use content created by others, even if it is is under a CC licence, you can’t give it another licence or close it down (depending on the specific conditions of the licence). It’s not up to you, just like you can’t open up something that’s not yours.

Its main product are the six licences available for free to creators to indicate which rights they wish to keep while communicating which types of use the public can make of their work without having to ask for permission every time. When a creator chooses to apply a CC licence to their work, they keep their copyright but make their work free of the usual copyright constraints: for example sharing, remixing and reusing the work legally without having to ask permission or pay additional fees, as long as the conditions of the licence are respected.

CC licences are indicated in one of three ways:

The icons or buttons

The long written out version

The short version

4.0 refers to the latest version of the licences, which are applicable internationally. Previous version were more location specific and are still valid. You will likely see version 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 every once in a while.

The six licences are a combination of 4 conditions. Let’s examine each one:

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Attribution (BY)

Must give credit to the creator of the work

Basic requirement for all Creative Commons licences

Creative Commons BY icon, Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0

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ShareAlike (SA)

If the original content is adapted, the new (modified) work must be shared under the same licence

Creative Commons SA icon, Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0

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NonCommercial (NC)

Content cannot be used for commercial purposes (sold for profit)

Applies to the “use” being made, not the “user”

Creative Commons NC icon, Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0

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NoDerivatives (ND)

Adaptations of the original work cannot be shared publicly (only used privately)

Creative Commons ND icon, Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0

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CC0 - Public domain dedication

Instrument used by creators to waive their rights and dedicate their work to the public domain right away

CC0

Creative Commons CC0 Icons, Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0

More about CC0:

https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/

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Level of openness of CC licences

Ordering of Creative Commons licences from most to least permissive, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Combining content under different licences

See also: “Combining and adapting CC material,”

Creative Commons Frequently Asked Questions, CC BY 4.0

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Basic principles

Applying an open licence to a project does not change the original copyright status of third-party content (even when reproduced with permission or under an exception)
Is it possible to apply an open licence to overall project while individual elements have a different licence or copyright status? Depends if it is a collection or an adaptation

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Collection vs adaptation

Collective work (collection, compilation): “work written in distinct parts by different authors, or in which works or parts of works of different authors are incorporated” (ex. course pack, anthology)* Quoted from: Copyright Act , R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42, Section 2: Interpretation (definitions)

*also applies to audio and video files

Adaptation (remix, derivative): new creation based on existing copyright-protected works that is original enough (i.e. involves skill, effort or judgement) that it acquires a new copyright (ex. a translation)

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Collection (or compilation)

Selection of existing materials still distinguishable once brought together (ex. TV dinner)
Existing content does not acquire new licence/copyright
New copyright/licence on additions of new content only (introduction, conclusion, commentary, cover)

C C TV Dinner by Nate Angell is licensed under CC BY 4.0, and is a derivative of tv dinner 1 by adrigu used under CC BY 2.0, and various Creative Commons licence buttons by Creative Commons used under CC BY 4.0.

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Adaptation (or derivative)

Combination of existing materials that are not easily distinguishable once combined (ex. smoothie)
To acquire a new licence or copyright, new creation based on existing content needs to be original enough (i.e. involve judgement and skill)

CC Smoothie by Nate Angell is licensed under CC BY 4.0, and is a derivative of Strawberry Smoothie On Glass Jar by Element5 Digital under a Pexels License, and various Creative Commons licence buttons by Creative Commons used under CC BY 4.0.

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ShareAlike (SA)

A work with SA restriction can be used in a collection without having to apply the same restriction to the entire collection.

However, if it is modified or is part of an adaptation, the new work needs to be shared under the same licence (or will require permission of copyright owner).

Creative Commons SA icon, Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0

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NoDerivatives (ND)

A work with ND restriction can be used in a collection since it is not being modified.

However, it cannot be used in an adaptation if this new work is going to be shared with others. Sharing publicly requires the permission of the copyright owner.

Creative Commons ND icon, Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0

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Remixing/adapting CC-licensed materials

Creative Commons remix chart, Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0

From CC FAQ

For example, if you create a remix with material licensed under a ShareAlike license, you need to make sure that all of the material contributed to the remix is licensed under the same license and you must properly credit all of the sources with the required attribution and license information. Similarly, if you want to use a remix for commercial purposes, you cannot incorporate material released under one of the NonCommercial licenses.

The chart below shows which CC-licensed material can be remixed. To use the chart, find a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a check mark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the works may not be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies (or with permission).

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Using content created by others

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Using the Library collections

Third-party content protected by copyright
Licence agreements with vendors for electronic resources are for research, private and educational purposes by authorized users at uOttawa
Permission from copyright owner is generally required

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Content in the public domain

for which copyright has expired

over which author has waived their right (CC0)

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Linking and insubstantial use

Linking:

ISED, What is a copyright? (Canada), YouTube, 7 Sept. 2016

Insubstantial use:

Short quotes, still from a video (with attribution)

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Embedding

Using URL or script to embed third-party content
Viewing original content rather than copying

Example: Netflix UK & Ireland, James Acaster on the Absurdity of the British Empire, YouTube, 12 November 2019 (using Google Slides embed video function)

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Reproducing content protected by ©

Content you have created and for which you still own copyright
Content for which you have obtained permission from the copyright owner for this purpose

Note: does not change its copyright status when adding open licence to overall project

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What about fair dealing?

Education, research, private study as fair dealing purposes do not apply neatly to a publicly available resource (as opposed to a password-protected environment like Virtual Campus)

Avoid resorting to fair dealing to add decorative elements; should have pedagogical value

Case by case… Ask the Copyright Office! ddac@uottawa.ca

What is fair dealing? Exception in copyright act that allows for reproduction of short excerpts without asking for permission under certain circumstances. It can get tricky and I don’t recommend resorting to fair dealing without having a chat with me or my colleagues at the Copyright Office first (case by case basis, risk assessment). Remember that even if you decide to apply that exception, it doesn’t change the fact that the original is copyright-protected and that needs to be indicated in the project you are creating.

Stay away from resorting to fair dealing to add decorative elements - criticism and review is more likely to be acceptable, i.e. an image or a longer excerpt that is the object of an analysis. Has to have pedagogical value. Last resort… best to ask for permission.

So reproducing an article from a journal that we subscribe to at the library or a chapter of a textbook of which you own a copy is not permitted to be incorporated into an open project.

Pause for questions

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Adding licence and attributions

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Applying an open licence to a project

Location depends on platform and format:

slides: title slide
website: at bottom of each page; terms of use page
video file: on hosting platform; end credits
audio file: on hosting platform; in credits

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Indicating presence of different copyright/licences within a project

Indicate the copyright status/licence of all other components that fit under “otherwise noted” in their attribution (see TASL on next slide)

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Attributing CC-licensed content

Title, Author, Source, Licence (TASL)

Including the licence deed (human-readable)

Example of an image:

Stellar Jay by Shelly Prevost licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

See also: Mélanie Brunet and Catherine Lachaîne, How to attribute Creative Commons-licensed Content: Best Practices, CC BY 4.0

Link to photo on Flickr

Link to author profile on Flickr

Link to CC licence deed

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Where to add attributions

Location depends on platform and format:

General rule: as close as possible to content being reproduced
Credits page (website, slides, videos)
Verbal recitation of credits at end of recording
In information about resource (video, audio)

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Indicating adaptations and permissions

Example from: “Attribution,” The OER Starter Kit by Abbey Elder (Iowa State University), CC BY 4.0

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Thank you!

Questions?

Library OER Support

reloer@uottawa.ca

Copyright Office

ddac@uottawa.ca

Credits:

Streamline presentation template by Google

Unless otherwise noted, icons used in this presentation are from the Noun Project, used with permission through a NounPro for Education royalty-free licence.