by Theresa Huff

In this course, you will be writing a textbook chapter on a particular learning theory or theorist. For some of the content of the chapter, you will be utilizing Open Education Resources (OER). You will be searching for, reviewing, using, and remixing OER on your theory or theorist. In this course, you will also be using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to review or create content and instruction. For both of these purposes (and others), you must know what you lawfully can and cannot do with existing content by looking at how that content is licensed.

In this chapter, you will learn the differences between copyright, public domain, and open licensing, which should help you feel more confident in how you choose and use your content for this semester. You’ll also learn how to decode a Creative Commons (CC) license (often used with Open Education Resources), to confidently know what you can and cannot do with that content. You’ll learn more about OER next week, but for now, let’s focus on the different licenses.

U.S. Copyright

Definition of U.S. Copyright

United States copyright law is designed to protect creators’ intellectual (and financial) rights over their creative works and the rights of people to consume such creative works. From film to scholarly articles, creative works are protected under the U.S. Copyright Office once “original works of authorship [are] fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.” In other words, a highly creative work that we can perceive using one or more of our senses is likely copyrightable.

U.S. Copyright Office, Section 102.

Copyrights

You alone, as the creator of a work, have the right to do the following with your creation:

U.S. Copyright Office, Section 106. Exclusive rights in copyrighted works, “Chapter 1: Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright,” in Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17). 

Term of U.S. Copyright

As scholars, you produce copyrighted material as part of your profession. Many higher education institutions allow faculty and students to retain their copyrights. Generally, the term of copyright for works published after January 1, 1978, lasts the lifetime of the author plus an additional 70 years. If your creation is a work for hire, that is your employer retains the copyright, or published anonymously or pseudonymously, then the copyright of a work is for 95 years from the first publication or 120 years from its creation, whichever is the shortest term. Of course, the duration of copyright can be complex. Luckily, the U.S. Copyright Office has a detailed pamphlet.

Public Domain

During the country’s infancy, copyright was limited to 14 years because the U.S. government desired to foster a free and creative marketplace of ideas in which creators could build upon each other’s intellectual work. Thanks to lobbying to extend copyright terms from The Walt Disney Company , though, this free market place, known as the public domain, is a bit smaller than originally conceived.

The public domain is a term for creative works that cannot be copyrighted or are not copyrighted. That is, works that you can use however you want because they have no restrictive copyrights. A work may enter the public domain in the following ways. First, a creator may have intentionally dedicated their work to the public domain by publishing their work with the public domain symbol (pictured on the left). Second, their work may never have been eligible for current copyright, or the copyright expired. Also, taxpayer-funded work of most government workers is in the public domain, so we can all enjoy NASA’s images of space. Finally, a creator’s 70-year minimum copyright term may have expired.

Every January 1 in the United States is Public Domain Day, marking the release of works, such as Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie (1928), for free public use. That is, in 2024 works published in 1928 entered the public domain, and in 2025 works published in 1927 will follow.

Open licensing

On a spectrum, copyright would be on one side with all rights reserved by the creator, and public domain would be on the other side of the spectrum with no rights reserved by the creator. Openly licensed content falls between these two extremes with some rights reserved, depending on which open license is chosen by the creator (though technically public domain is considered an open license, too). If you wanted to use someone’s copyrighted material, you must obtain permission, also known as obtaining a “license” for specific use, according to Rich Stim, a copyright attorney. Open licenses, however, are a way for you to help people immediately know how they can use your creative works. In other words, you can retain your copyrights and foster individual and collective creativity and intellectual growth. That’s what we call a win-win.

Creative Commons Licenses

Based on David Wiley’s 5R activities, Creative Commons (CC) licenses are the most commonly used open license in the open education movement because the CC organization is deeply committed to making education more affordable and accessible. Applying a CC license to your work allows you to communicate the retention of your copyrights across a spectrum, from copyright’s all rights reserved to placing your work in the public domain.

In addition to their CC branded icon, CC Licenses essentially offer four licensing terms that can be combined into six types of licenses. Let’s take a closer look at the different components:

Attribution (BY)	By (BY) requires you to credit the creator when the work is cited, remixed, or otherwise used.	Share alike (SA)	Share alike (SA) requires all derivatives or remixes of the work be licensed under the same terms. For example, remixes of a CC BY-SA work must also be licensed with CC BY-SA.
Noncommercial (NC)	Noncommercial (NC) restricts users from using the work for commercial purposes. Authors often use this to protect their right to financially profit from their publication.	No derivatives (ND)	No derivatives (ND) prevents users from modifying or remixing the work. This does not prevent you from properly citing or critically engaging with the creation, though.

Using Creative Commons (CC) as your base term, you can add and combine attribution (BY), share alike (SA), noncommercial (NC), and no derivatives (ND) to express permissions to consumers of your work. The one exception is that because ND does not allow remixing, it is not compatible with share alike. That is, there is no need to apply a share alike stipulation for remixed versions of a work if remixing is not permitted.

CC Badges

The four licensing terms are combined in a variety of ways to attribute an open license. Attributions are noted with a written notice and/or a CC badge. Look for CC licenses in the front matter of a Pressbook, in a website footer, or immediately next to an item, such as a photo caption.

Let’s review the different badges, their terms of use, and their implications for OER, specifically Wiley’s 5 Rs of OER.

Recap

U.S. copyright law and licensing are complicated. This chapter is not a complete review of copyright law, but here to provide you with tools and some guidance to navigate this complicated field. Next week, you will begin looking for Open Education Resources (OER) on your theory or theorist, which use CC licenses. You’ll also be given guidance on using AI tools in this course, and what content is lawful (and not lawful) to use with AI tools. Once you begin remixing OER and developing your own work, we will revisit more advanced components of copyright and open licenses.

References

Creative Commons,(2019). “Downloads”

Creative Commons,(2019). “About CC Licenses.” CC BY 4.0.

Creative Commons,(2019). Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians. CC BY 4.0.

Creative Commons, (2019). “Frequently Asked Questions.” CC BY 4.0.

Levin, S. (2021). “Are Recipes and Cookbooks Protected by Copyright?,” Copyright Alliance.

U.S. Copyright Office, Section 104: Subject Matter of Copyright: National Origin, “Chapter 1: Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright,” in Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17). 

U.S. Copyright Office, Section 106. Exlusive rights in copyrighted works, “Chapter 1: Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright,” in Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17). 

Wiley, D. (2024). “Defining the ‘Open’ in Open Content and Open Educational Resources,” improving learning. CC BY 4.0.