Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is a global body that provides open-copyright licences, so as an author, you can give your permission to share and reuse your creative work, with the conditions you choose.
At BCcampus, most resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence, which means you are free to share and adapt the content, as long as you give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The copyright licences offered through Creative Commons grant specific permissions depending on the licence you choose for your work.
Creative commons license spectrum between public domain (top- least restrictive) and all rights reserved (bottom – most restrictive). Left side indicates the use-cases allowed, right side the license components. The dark green area indicates Free Cultural Works compatible licenses, the two green areas compatibility with the Remix culture.
The CC licenses all grant the “baseline rights”, such as the right to distribute the copyrighted work worldwide, for non-commercial purposes and without modification.[20] The details of each of these licenses depend on the version, and comprises a selection out of four conditions:
| Icon | Description |
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Freeing content globally without restrictions -Works within the public domain are not restricted by copyright, so they are owned by the public. However, copyright laws vary from country to country. |
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Attribution (BY) – This licence allows others to distribute, change, remix, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This licence gives anyone using your work the most permissions, but watch that you are using the specified attribution if there is one, and that you are linking back to the original source. |
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Attribution (BY) ShareAlike (SA) – This licence allows others to distribute, change, remix, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This licence is often compared to open source software licences. You, and anyone using your new version of this work, must release these adaptations with the same (“share alike”) CC BY-SA licence. |
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Attribution (BY) NonCommercial (NC) – This licence allows others to distribute, change, remix, and build upon your work as long as they credit you for the original creation. However, they cannot sell it or profit from it except to recuperate the costs of printing, for example. It is a nonprofit licence. |
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Attribution (BY) NonCommercial (NC) ShareAlike (SA) – This licence allows others to distribute, change, remix, and build upon your work as long as they credit you for the original creation. However, you cannot sell it or profit from it except to recuperate the costs of printing, for example. It is a nonprofit licence. You, and anyone using your new version of this work, must release these adaptations with the same (“share alike”) CC BY-NC-SA licence. |
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Attribution (BY) NoDerivatives (ND) – This licence allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you. There are a limited number of textbooks with ND restrictions in the B.C. Open Textbook Collection. These are accepted on a case-by-case basis. |
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Attribution (BY) NonCommercial (NC) NoDerivatives (ND) – This licence is the most restrictive of the six main Creative Commons licences, allowing redistribution. This licence is often called the “free advertising” licence because it allows others to download and share your work with others as long as they credit you, but they must be passed along unchanged and in whole or use them commercially. It is a nonprofit licence. |
Creating your own materials/ content for your OER
- Visit the TRU Copyright office to learn more about protecting your own intellectual property rights and using others’ materials responsibly in OER development. Or contact Copyright@tru.ca.
- BC Campus has a comprensive resource to help you license your work: Open Licences & Creative Commons for Authors
Resources
For a detailed discussion on the public domain in Canada, see UBC’s Copyright-Free Materials; or: Why Should I Learn About the Public Domain?
References
BC Campus. (n.d). What are Creative Commons and Open Licences?[Adapted]. https://open.bccampus.ca/what-is-open-education/what-are-creative-commons-and-open-licences/
Wikipedia contributors. (2020, June 21). Creative Commons license. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:49, June 25, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creative_Commons_license&oldid=963791337
Wikipedia contributors. (2022, January 24). Creative Commons license. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:59, January 26, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creative_Commons_license&oldid=1067623450