Comparing Creative Commons with Copyright
Peg French
Copyright protects the exclusive right of the originator of a work to copy or license the work. In contrast, Creative Commons provides an alternative to the restrictive nature of copyright, and provides learners with a more cost-effective option to access materials.
Creative Commons (CC), sometimes referred to as “copyleft,” gives creators a choice in how they allow others to use their creations, whether text, pictures, songs, or other forms.
Creative Commons and other commitments to openness are gaining momentum in many environments: open access, open data, open source, open pedagogy, etc.
In this module we concentrate on Creative Commons and its support of open educational resources, more commonly known as OER. We explore how high-quality OER, with their ability to be reused and often remixed, can replace high-cost commercial resources in your courses. Beyond saving your learners money, these OER can boost learning in your courses. With careful curation, you can design and develop courses that include content tailored to your specific learners’ need, modelling your preferred approaches and strategies.
Watch the Wanna Work Together? (Creative Commons, 2009) video that explains some of the differences between Copyright and Creative Commons.
Creative Commons Licenses Explained
To ;earn out more about Creative Commons take a look at the Creative Commons Licenses Explained (Process Arts, 2011) video.
Licensing under Creative Commons covers:
Attribution
Commercial use
Modifications or Derivatives
Share alike – where remixes, mashups, etc. must be shared under the same license as the original
Source: UBC wiki: Creative commons licenses
Check Your Understanding
Play a quizlet matching game to see if you remember what the different CC licenses mean. Drag together the icon of a license and the description that matches it. There is no reward for being fastest.
After exploring Creative Commons vs Copyright and the different licenses, share how you think these play into the curation process. What questions do you have about the licenses?
