OER tutorial: A self-paced guide for faculty

In the previous module the benefits of using OER were highlighted. In this module, you will learn about the different types of open licenses, and how they compare to traditional copyright.

By the end of this module you should be able to:

1. Define an open license
2. Distinguish between materials that are all rights reserved, in the public domain, or openly licensed
3. Understand the basic factors to be considered under the Fair Use Doctrine

Introduction to Open Licensing

Did you realize this tutorial you're using right now is an OER? I have reused, remixed and modified the content from multiple authors, many of whom reused, remixed and modified from other previous authors. If you want to reuse the content, or modify it for your students or colleagues, you could go right ahead -- with attribution of course. 

Open licensing is what makes it possible for you to legally reuse, modify, and reshare this work. When discussing open licensing it is necessary to review definitions of important terms, laws, and principles applied to a creator's work and how it can be used or reused. In addition to introducing and defining open licenses, this module will review and define copyright, fair use, and public domain.

Copyright 

Copyright is the intellectual property law that protects a creative work from theft or misuse. It is the creator's legal claim to the works that they create. By default, any original work is copyrighted to the creator when that work is expressed in a tangible form. So when we talk about open licensing, it is as an alternative to the full collection of rights a creator normally has under copyright:

• To reproduce,
• Adapt,
• Publish,
• Perform, and
• Display

 As educators, we become familiar with exceptions to this legal protection, usually as fair use, public domain, or open licensing.

Fair Use

Fair use is a doctrine of U.S. copyright law. It provides guidelines on when making copies of copyrighted materials is likely to be allowed without asking or paying extra for permission from the author or publisher. Some examples of allowed use are:

• A student doing research who prints a copy of an article from a library database, or from a print journal.
• A literature professor who uploads to their LMS a scanned copy of a short short from a library book for students to read and critique.
• An economics professor who prints copies of a newspaper article for students, who analyze its content and apply principles of economics they're learning in class.

These examples are all common occurrences in colleges, and they're all allowable according to the doctrine of Fair Use. They're allowable because:

1. The use is educational,
2. It is transformative (used for a different purpose than its original intent), and
3. The amount of the material is appropriate to the educational purpose or learning objective.

Kirkwood Library Services maintains a detailed online guide to fair use, and librarians can be consulted on any faculty questions about fair use. 

Because of the nature of open licensing, the fair use determination is not needed when using OER. Permission to copy has already been granted through the open license. However, many faculty who remix their own course content from multiple sources may find that they want to include small amounts of copyrighted works and therefore need a solid understanding of fair use.

Open License

An open license exists as a way for the original creator to clearly inform others how their work can be used by granting permissions to share and adapt their work. Creative Commons (also known as CC) licensing and Public Domain are the most common open licenses. Module 4 will describe the various types of licenses and their specific permissions.

As a reminder from Module 1 (and to compare with the 5 rights outlined above for materials under copyright) open licenses provide 5 permissions to users:

• To retain a copy,
• To reuse the material for your own purpose,
• To revise or otherwise modify the material,
• To remix parts of the material with other resources to create a new work,
• To redistribute the work to others.

Public Domain covers the majority of works published by the U.S. government, and works that are old enough to have their copyright expire. The main difference between open licensing and public domain is that open licensing retains authorship and requires attribution to the original creator. Public domain does not. 

"Difference between open license, public domain and all rights reserved copyright" by Boyoung Chae is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Information for this module was consulted and adapted from

"Copyright, Creative Commons, and Public Domain" by William Meinke is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"Creating, Licensing and Publishing OER" by SUNY OER Services is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"Module 7: Public Domain" by Open Washington, Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"What is an open license and how does it work?" by The Council of Chief State School Officers is licensed under CC BY 4.0