Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Define copyright and open licenses.
- Explain the purpose of copyright law in the United States.
An open license is a vital component of an open educational resource. Because of this, it is important that you understand how open licenses work within copyright law. This chapter will provide an overview of U.S. copyright law, fair use, and licensing to help you navigate this topic.
Attribution: “What is an open license and how does it work?” by The Council of Chief State School Officers is licensed CC BY 4.0.
Copyright Law
U.S. copyright law protects an author’s rights over their original creative works (e.g., research articles, books and manuscripts, artwork, video and audio recordings, musical compositions, architectural designs, video games, and unpublished creative works).[1] As soon as something is “fixed in a tangible medium of expression,” it is automatically protected by copyright. A resource is considered fixed when:
“its embodiment …by or under the authority of the author, is sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration.”[2]
In other words, an idea for a book you want to write is not protected by copyright, but the first draft of your manuscript is. Copyright protection ensures that the creator of a work has complete control over how their work is reproduced, distributed, performed, displayed, and adapted.[3] You do not need to register your resource with the U.S. Copyright Office for this to come into effect; it is automatic.
Public Domain
Works that are no longer protected by copyright are considered part of the public domain. Items in the public domain can be reused freely for any purpose by anyone, without giving attribution to the author or creator.[4]
Public domain works in the U.S. include works whose creator died 70 years prior, works published before 1924, or works dedicated to the public domain by their rightsholder. The Creative Commons organization created a legal tool called CC 0 to help creators dedicate their work to the public domain by releasing all rights to it.[5]
Licensing
The copyright status of a work determines what you can and cannot do with it.[6] As you begin to explore OER for use in your classroom, it is important that you understand your rights over the works you create and what it means to give those rights away.
Most copyrighted works are under full, “all rights reserved” copyright. This means that they cannot be reused in any way without permission from the work’s rightsholder (usually the creator). One way you can get permission to use someone else’s work is through a license, a statement or contract that allows you to perform, display, reproduce, or adapt a copyrighted work in the circumstances specified within the license. For example, the copyright holder for a popular book might sign a license to provide a movie studio with one-time rights to use their characters in a film.
What About Fair Use?
If an OER is available under a copyright license that restricts certain (re)uses, you can make a fair use assessment for reproducing or adapting that work. However, having explicit permission is preferable. We do not recommend using fully copyrighted works in OER projects without written permission from the work’s rightsholder.
Open Licenses
All OER are made available under some type of open license, a set of authorized permissions from the rightsholder of a work for any and all users. The most popular of these licenses are Creative Commons (CC) licenses, customizable copyright licenses that allow others to reuse, adapt, and re-publish content with few or no restrictions. CC licenses allow creators to explain in plain language how their works can be used by others.[7]
Creative Commons licenses will be explored in more detail in the next chapter. However, there are other open licenses that can be applied to educational materials. A few of these licenses are described below:
- GNU Free Documentation License: a copyleft license that grants the right to copy, redistribute, and modify a resource. It requires all copies and derivatives to be available under the same license. Copies may be sold commercially, but the original document or source code must be made available to the user as well.[8]
- Free Art License: The FAL “grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works without infringing the author’s rights.” It is meant to be applied to artistic works, not documents.[9]
If you’re interested in learning more about open licenses, feel free to explore the Free Software Foundation’s information on copyleft licenses, some of the first licenses used for open content.[10]
Why Open Licenses?
Open licenses are an integral part of what makes an educational resource an OER. The adaptability and reusability of OER make it so that they are not just free to access, but also free for instructors who want to alter the materials for use in their course. For example, in the figure below an openly licensed image has been traced to make it more readable for users.
One of the tenets of OER laid out early on in the open education movement was the idea of the 5 Rs (originally the 4 Rs) introduced by David Wiley.[11] These five attributes lay out what it means for something to be truly “open,” as the term is used in open education. The 5 Rs include:
- Retain = the right to make, own, and control copies of the content.
- Reuse = the right to use the content in a wide range of ways
- Revise = the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself
- Remix = the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new
- Redistribute = the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others
While the “redistribute” and “revise” rights are the most commonly exercised rights in open education, each of the five plays an important role in the utility of an open educational resource. For example, without the right to “remix” materials, an instructor who teaches an interdisciplinary course would not be able to combine two disparate OER into a new resource that more closely fits their needs.
In the next chapter, we’ll look at Creative Commons licenses and how they facilitate the expression of the 5 Rs in unique ways.
- Copyright Law of the United States, 17 USC §102. https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#102 ↵
- Copyright Law of the United States, 17 USC §101. https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#101 ↵
- Copyright Law of the United States, 17 USC §106. https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#106 ↵
- Of course, standard citation procedures still apply for creative works in the public domain. You cannot claim another's work as your own. ↵
- Peters, Diane. "Improving Access to the Public Domain: The Public Domain Mark." Creative Commons Blog, October 11, 2010. https://creativecommons.org/2010/10/11/improving-access-to-the-public-domain-the-public-domain-mark/ ↵
- Attribution: "Licensing" and "Public Domain" were adapted in part from UH OER Training by Billy Meinke, licensed CC BY 4.0. ↵
- By assigning an open license to your work, you allow any user to exercise the rights allowed under the license, and cannot restrict reuse by certain individuals or parties without changing the license itself. ↵
- Free Sotware Foundation. "GNU Free Documentation License." 2008. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html ↵
- Copyleft Attitude. "Free Art License 1.3." 2007. http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en/ ↵
- Free Software Foundation. "What is Copyleft?." Accessed June 29, 2019. https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/copyleft.html ↵
- Wiley, David. "Defining the 'Open' in Open Content and Open Educational Resources." Open Content blog, 2014. http://opencontent.org/definition/ ↵
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Explain why students might want to access a print copy of an OER.
- Identify three options for acquiring an OER in print.
Physical copies of course materials are sometimes preferred by both students and instructors. Since OER are typically created as digital objects first, it can be difficult to picture them as physical items, but many OER come in low-cost print versions as well. In this chapter, we'll review some of the reasons why and how you might offer a print option for your text-based OER.
Why Print?
There are many reasons why your students might want to access an OER in print, even at a price. A few of these are listed below:
- Students who do not own a laptop might want to have a print copy of their text for use in the classroom.
- Some students have issues with eye strain when reading on computer screens.
- Some students find it easier to retain information from print texts.
- Some students (and instructors!) prefer having physical manuals for use in labs.
Although not all students will want to purchase your materials in print, having the option available might be a worthwhile endeavor for your course.
Purchasing Copies
One option for accessing OER in print is to purchase publisher-produced copies. For example, OpenStax, a Rice University-based open textbook publisher, provides bulk printing through textbook providers that contract with university bookstores. Campus bookstores can order copies of OpenStax textbooks and other OER which have print copies available for sale.
The American Yawp is a prime example of a university press-distributed open textbook. First released in print in 2018, the massively collaborative United States History textbook is one of the most popular history OER in use today. New editions of the text are released regularly and the book's update history is provided on its host website.
Even if the publisher of your chosen OER does not sell physical copies of their resource, you can commission copies through third-party platforms such as Lulu.com or Amazon. This can be an excellent option if you plan on rearranging chapters of your chosen text or if you are compiling a reader of various open resources.
Warning: Before ordering print copies of your text, keep in mind how your use of print materials will affect your students' engagement with your course.
Considerations for courses using OER in print
- Should students be required to purchase a hard copy?
- Could you easily print and lend out copies of the OER to your students?
- How will you explain to students where the OER can be found for free online?
Printing on Campus
If the OER you want isn't available to purchase in print and you don't want to commission print copies on a third-party platform, you can also consider printing copies on campus.
University Printing Services
Campus Printing Services is an excellent option for getting a text-based resource ready for print. Keep in mind that the price of your resource will vary depending on the printing specifications you choose (e.g., ring-bound, softcover, black and white, full color). To make things easier for your students, you should work with printing services and your bookstore to get your book in the best possible format for your needs.[1]
Student-Printed Copies
If you aren't certain whether your course could benefit from using OER in print, you can choose not to offer a print version. In this case, individual students can print personal copies of the text for themselves. Students provided with print credits on campus can print individual chapters or sections of your material or they can print the full text of your book or manual at a store like Staples.
The Non-Commercial Discussion
There is a cost to print any resource, even an open one. Since the Non-Commercial (NC) Creative Commons licenses do not permit reuse for commercial purposes, this might make you think that you cannot access Non-Commercial OER in print; however, that is not the case. Open educational resources with CC BY NC licenses can be printed and sold at cost or with standard university bookstore markups, but they cannot be sold for a profit.[2] Some quick rules of thumb for using Non-Commercial CC-licensed OER content are outlined below:
- The CC BY NC license gives the rightsholder of a work complete control over its commercialization. The author can sell copies for a profit, but no one else can unless the author gives express permission.[3]
- The CC BY NC license allows for copies of a work to be sold at cost. Printing copies of another creator's work through a third party like Staples or Lulu.com is allowed under the CC BY NC license, as long as you do not sell those copies for a profit.
- Items licensed CC BY NC can be distributed to students by a for-profit company or private university without breaking the terms of its license: what matters is the characterization of the use, not the user.
