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Licensing Materials for Reuse
The Case for Reuse and Derivative Works
Academia's love affair with literature reviews and proper citation comes from an acknowledgment that our work builds on a foundation laid by others. We are able to take the work of others and generate new questions and new ideas. The knowledge building process becomes creative and collaborative. Unfortunately, copyright laws can curtail that creativity by limiting access to information and restricting reuse by others.
The Creative Commons License
Creative Commons provides an author with flexibility regarding how his/her work will be licensed. Traditional copyright law gives no such flexibility. Through Creative Commons, participants in the OpenCourseWare movement can make it easier for others to reuse their materials.
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A description of the Creative Commons solution to the limitations of the current copyright system. |
Justin Cone's film that demonstrates what Creative Commons is and how it works . |
Larry Lessig, the founder of the Creative Commons movement on creativity, remix, and the absurdity of copyright law. |
OpenCourseWare and Creative Commons
OpenCourseWare projects use a Creative Commons license to allow faculty and publishers to choose what license requirements they would like to place on the use and reuse of their materials. Three common license requirements are Non-Commercial, Attribution, and Share Alike. Visit creativecommons.org to learn more about how the Creative Commons license is applied.- Non-commercial: Materials can only be used for non-commercial purposes.
- Attribution: Materials must be attributed to the publishing institution and, if a faculty member's name is associated with the material, to that person as well.
- Share Alike: If the works are altered, transformed, or built upon, the resulting work must be offered freely and openly to others under the same terms.
