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 7. Selecting a license and registering material
7.2. Registering the work
Once the work is created, registration is an advisable strategy to proof the authorship. Registration can be done using public of private registration centers.
7.2.1. Registration as proof
Copyright is automatic, as the work is protected from the moment of its creation. There is no need to do anything to get the protection. Therefore, registering the work (typically in public centres) is not mandatory.
However, registration is a stronger proof of authorship, and is recommended when there is a chance of a future challenge on the authorship of the work.
7.2.2. Public official registration centres
Most countries have a public official registration centre for IP works. This public registration is a strong evidence of authorship of the work, and admitted in legal issues. However, it is usually not free. The traditional registering process is offline (bringing the materials to the registration office), although most of the centres have now an onlineregistration option.
7.2.3. Private registration centres
There are also non official registration centres, such as Safe Creative. This are onlineregistration centres which have a multi-country presence.
This registration is evidence of authorship as well. These centres usually claim legal validityof this evidence, although it should be checked on a country basis.
The standard business model of these centres is the freemium model, in which the free version offers a subset of the features.