Authors: A.A.Fuente, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain; A.Texeira, L.Morgado, Universidade Aberta, Portugal.
The general goal of this training material is to help teachers create academic materials while complying with the Intellectual Property (IP) laws, with licenses as the main point of interest. The focus is on Creative Commons (CC) licenses, as this licenses are probably the licenses of choice in the academic field.
Unit 1 introduces the main concepts needed to understand IP, including licenses. In Unit 2 we will learn about CC licenses and how to use them.
Unit 3 introduces additional IP concepts, as differences between countries in IP laws reside in these areas and they must be taken into account by the author of academic materials. These regional particularities are treated in Unit 4.
Creators of materials can use resources from others. In Unit 5 we will learn about the different types of resources that can be used, and a specific process to assure compliance with IP law when using these resources by checking the licenses. Unit 6 shows how to search for these resources considering the resource license.
The last unit is devoted to registration, which is usually the last thing done regarding IP when developing academic materials
Unit 2. Creative Commons licenses concepts
2.3. The 6 Creative Commons licenses
The valid combinations of the before mentioned rights give just 6 CC licenses the user should choose from (as of version 4.0 of the licenses):
Attribution (CC BY)
Work can be used for any purpose, as long as the author is attributed.
Attribution – No Derivatives (CC BY ND)
Once the author is attributed, the only limit is that no modification to the original work is done.
Attribution – Share Alike (CC BY SA)
The author must be attributed, but the work using the original must keep the same license. This prevents the new work from locking the original inside a new, more restrictive license.
Attribution – Non Commercial (CC BY NC)
Once the author is attributed, the only limit is that the original work can not be used for commercial purposes.
Attribution – Non Commercial – No Derivatives (CC BY NC ND)
As CC NC and then no modifications of the original work are allowed.
Attribution – Non Commercial – Share Alike (CC BY SA)
As CC NC and then the new works should use this same license.
Public Domain License (CC0)
This license expresses the will of the author to release the work to the public domain on a worldwide basis. This means that anybody can use the work for any purpose without asking for permission or a license.
