Copyright and Licensing

U.S. copyright law protects an author’s rights over their original creative works (e.g., research articles, books and manuscripts, artwork, video and audio recordings, musical compositions, architectural designs, video games, and unpublished creative works). As soon as something is “fixed in a tangible medium of expression,” it is automatically protected by copyright. A resource is considered fixed when:

“its embodiment …by or under the authority of the author, is sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration.”

In other words, an idea for a book you want to write is not protected by copyright, but the first draft of your manuscript is. Copyright protection ensures that the creator of a work has complete control over how their work is reproduced, distributed, performed, displayed, and adapted. You do not need to register your resource with the U.S. Copyright Office for this to come into effect; it is automatic.

Copyright law does identify some exceptions that allow people to use others’ intellectual property under certain conditions. These kinds of uses are allowed under the doctrine of fair use, which means they do not require permission from the copyright holder.

Some examples of fair use listed in copyright law include criticism, commentary, parody, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. However, not all uses made for these purposes will automatically be fair. Instead, copyright law provides a framework to determine what uses should be considered fair. This means that fair use must always be considered on a case by case basis.

You can read more about how to make a determination of fair use in Part 6: Using Existing Content.

Public Domain

Works that are no longer protected by copyright are considered part of the public domain. Items in the public domain can be reused freely for any purpose by anyone, without giving attribution to the author or creator.

Public domain works in the U.S. include works whose creator died 70 years prior, works published before 1924, or works dedicated to the public domain by their rightsholder. The Creative Commons organization created a legal tool called CC 0 to help creators dedicate their work to the public domain by releasing all rights to it.

Licensing

The copyright status of a work determines what you can and cannot do with it. As you begin to explore OER for use in your classroom, it is important that you understand your rights over the works you create and what it means to give those rights away.

Most copyrighted works are under full, “all rights reserved” copyright. This means that they cannot be reused in any way without permission from the work’s rightsholder (usually the creator). One way you can get permission to use someone else’s work is through a license, a statement or contract that allows you to perform, display, reproduce, or adapt a copyrighted work in the circumstances specified within the license. For example, the copyright holder for a popular book might sign a license to provide a movie studio with one-time rights to use their characters in a film.