See Book Info in the Pressbooks Userguide.

Copyright and licence information

Using information entered on the Book Info page, Pressbooks automatically generates a number of automatic pages, information blocks, and statements to provide licence and copyright information. (See Automatic Pages and Features.)

Although it may look different, this information will appear in all formats, including the webbook:

Webbook

The home page of the webbook will contain the book title, subtitle, author, the licence type, and a licence statement. Farther down the home page will be the metadata for the book, including the book title, author, publisher, reviewer, translator, illustrator, licence type and licensing statement. Licence and copyright information is also listed at the end of every chapter.

PDF

PDFs will contain a title page providing the book title, subtitle, author, and publisher name and city. There will also be a copyright page that provides the licensing statement, which includes the book title, author, and licence type.

Other things to note

Here are some items to take note of:

• The default licence setting for a new book in Pressbooks is “All Rights Reserved.” Select a Creative Commons licence or public domain from the Copyright License drop-down list to change this.
• The author and copyright holder for a book are not always the same. However, Pressbooks creates the licensing statement based on information entered into the Copyright Holder field, not the Author field. (See Exceptions to copyright ownership: employment in the Self-Publishing Guide.)
• Once a Creative Commons licence or public domain has been applied to a book, information about copyright disappears. This information must be added manually to the Copyright Notice field on the Book Info page.

Copyright Notice field

See below for suggested language to use in the Copyright Notice field on the Book Info page for both a new and adapted open textbook.

Copyright notice for a new open textbook

Following the Copyright Holder and Copyright License fields, is the Copyright Notice field where information is provided about copyright, the licence, and related actions. Items that can be added are:

• The name of the textbook
• The author(s)
• A type of open copyright licence used with a link to a description of that licence (See creativecommons.org for licence descriptions.)
• A description of what the licence permits users to do
• An explanation about when and how to attribute the author(s) of the textbook
• A description about the conditions for redistributing the textbook
• An example of how to cite the textbook
• An attribution statement for the image used on the textbook’s cover, including links to the image’s source and creator’s home page (if available) and a description of the licence under which the image has been released

Here is a sample:

Copyright notice for an adapted open textbook

The copyright notice for an open textbook that is an adaptation is similar to that of an original textbook, with a few exceptions. Items that can be added are:

• The name of the original textbook, its author(s), copyright owner(s), date of copyright
• The type of the open copyright licence used for the original textbook, with a link to a description of the licence (See creativecommons.org for licence descriptions)
• The name of the adapting author(s), copyright owner(s) of adapted/new material, and date of copyright for adapted/new material
• The type of open copyright licence used for adapted/new material with a link to a description of the licence (See creativecommons.org for licence descriptions.)
• A description of what the licence permits users to do
• An explanation about when and how to attribute the author(s) of the original textbook, including links to the textbook and a description of the licence
• A description about the conditions for redistributing the textbook
• An example of how to cite the textbook
• An attribution statement for the image used on the textbook’s cover, including links to the image’s source, creator’s home page (if available), and a description of the licence under which the image has been released

Chapter licences

If you need a different licence for a specific chapter, scroll to the bottom of the chapter’s page in the visual editor and select one from the Copyright License drop-drop menu. This action will override the book licence for that page only.