Adoption Principles 2: Check The Licensing

The most enjoyable part about the OER adoption process is exploration – visiting the Open Library to review all of the potential OER’s you can use for your teaching! Let’s now review some legalities that come with using, adapting or remixing an OER you have adopted.

OER’s are open and free to access, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t parameters. The majority of the open licenses you will see are CC license. These types of licenses will allow you to freely use with some caveats on how to treat the OER. There are also copyright, fair dealing, and attributions to also keep in mind when adopting or adapting an OER. 

CC License

There are six licenses, composed of four different principles. To see all creative common licenses you can use, you can view this chart. To understand what each symbol is when looking at a license, provided below is a quick snapshot of their function.

The first is a little drawing of a person: this indicates that credit must be given to the author. You’ll notice it in every single creative common license.  The next, the reverse symbol, indicates that adaptations must be shared under the same terms. From there, the equal sign just signifies that there are no derivatives or adaptations permitted.  An item must be shared as is. And finally, the dollar sign crossed out, to indicate that only noncommercial uses are permitted.   

Copyright

It’s important to understand copyright rules when dealing with open resources, especially those resources not under the creative commons license. Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to creators of an original work to copy, share, adapt, or otherwise use their work. When you own the copyright in a work, you control how it is used to protect its value.

Others who want to use the work must buy or otherwise get permission. An original work is automatically protected by copyright the moment you create it. Copyright lasts for seventy years after the death of the creator, or the last living creator of the work in a work with multiple authors. After the copyright term expires, work enters the public domain.  

Fair dealing

When creating or adapting a resource it is best practice to use outside resources that are also openly licensed. That isn’t always possible depending on the subject matter. This is when fair dealing can be useful. Fair dealing states that copyrighted works can be copied and distributed without permission if certain qualifications are satisfied.

There are six factors that fall under fair dealing, but it’s recommended to read further on the subject. If it is necessary to use fair dealing, its best practice to clearly state in a disclaimer that fair dealing is being used and for which resources. CARL has a great resource on dealing with fair dealing and OER’s. 

1. The purpose for making the copy – The real purpose or motive in reproducing or distributing a work. 

2. The character of the copying – The intended use of the work. 

3. The amount of work that will be copied – No more than what is necessary to use. 

4. Whether there are alternatives to copying – When there are no alternatives, it becomes fairer. 

5. The nature of the work being copied – Resource is not confidential and meant to be widely used. 

6. The effect of the copying on the market for the original work – Impact on the commercial market for the original work. 

Attributions

A common way to let a user know what resources you have used in an OER is to have an attributions section. It’s important to let your audience know what resources have not originally come from you. Attributions is similar to citations but with more of an emphasis on licensing. If you are using a Creative Commons licensed resource, attribution is a requirement. The basic structure of an attribution is title, author, source and licence. The OER incubator resource from Ontario Tech explains in detail about how to use attributions. 

For more information and support on OER adoption, please contact The Open Library at open@ecampusontario.ca 

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Attributions  

Share your work – Creative Commons By Creative Commons except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 

What copyright is (canada.ca) By The Government of Canada license contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. 

Copyright Act (justice.gc.ca) By The Government of Canada license contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. 

Navigating Licenses – Mastering Open Ed: Licensing, Accessibility, Creation, and Publishing OER (pressbooks.pub) Copyright © 2023 by eCampusOntario is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.  

CARL_Code_Best_Practices_FD_OER.pdf (carl-abrc.ca) By Rowena Johnson, Heather Martin, Stephanie Savage, Joshua Dickison, Ann Ludbrook and Kayla Lar-Son licensed under a CC BY 4.0. 

OER Incubator: Open Education Lab at Ontario Tech Copyright © by Sarah Stokes; Rebecca Maynard; and Pranjal Saloni is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. 

Introduction to Licensing / Introduction à l’attribution de licences (youtube.com) By eCampusOntario licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0