It is important that copyright and Creative Commons (CC) licences are understood, planned and agreed in writing at the start of a project.

Traditional textbooks and other educational resources, including course outlines and lecture notes, are copyright 'all rights reserved'. When a work is copyright 'all rights reserved' you cannot copy, use, adapt, modify or share it without requesting permission from the copyright owner unless there is an exception in the Copyright Act.

OER are copyright 'some rights reserved' because they have a CC licence. A CC licence means the copyright owner has given permission for others to use their work provided proper attribution is given and other licence conditions are followed.

Licensing prerequisites

The licensor/s must own the copyright or have authority from the copyright owner to apply a CC licence.

• At Charles Sturt copyright in teaching material is owned by the university and copyright in students work is generally owned by the students (IP policy). The University Librarian has standing authorisation to apply CC licences to teaching materials.
• Collaborators from other organisations may need to check their employer's IP policy and get authorisation to license their work.

When selecting a CC licence consider how you would like your work to be distributed and used by others. 

CC0 (Creative Commons zero) or a public domain dedication is the most open. CC0 is recommended for general purpose or data-like content where attribution is not important. 

CC BY means users can redistribute, retain, reuse, remix and revise (adapt and build on) your content to suit their purposes. They can even use the work commercially however they must give you credit, and attribution should always link back to the original source. CC BY does not prevent you as copyright owner from using the work commercially, for example selling printed copies for profit. CC BY is recommended for most OER projects.

CC BY SA allows users to redistribute, retain, reuse and revise (adapt and build on) your content to suit their purposes. SA means the new work must also have a CC BY SA licence, therefore it introduces some limitations on choice of works for remixing. 

CC BY NC allows users to redistribute, retain, reuse, remix and revise (adapt and build on) your content but not for commercial gain. Often people naturally feel that they are happy to share their work, but do not want others to make money from it. Before selecting NC consider that attribution, including linking to the original ‘free’ source is a requirement of all CC licences, therefore to make money from the work, the user would need to contribute significant additional value to it. Also consider if selling derivatives of the work could support a small enterprise, for example selling printed and bound copies of an OER in a community with limited internet access. Applying an NC licence does not prevent a big corporate enterprise from using a work for non-commercial purposes, for example internal staff training.

CC BY NC SA combines the limitations imposed by CC BY SA and CC BY NC.

CC BY ND allows users to redistribute and retain your work even commercially. ND prohibits remixing and revising, therefore works licenced with the ND element are not generally considered OER. The library does not recommend ND licences except for situations where revisions or adaptations may not be appropriate, for example: 

• photographs of individuals;
• highly technical material used in health care if misinterpretation could lead to harm;
• traditional knowledge or cultural IP. 

CC BY NC ND combines the limitations imposed by CC BY NC and CC BY ND.

Read more about choosing CC licences

If the work is entirely new, then you are free to select whichever licence you feel is most appropriate.

If you are adapting or remixing content from other sources, your licence choice may be limited.

The original licence always applies to the work used in your adaptation.
The licence you choose for your own creative contribution is called the 'Adaptors licence'.
Users have to comply with the licence conditions of the original work and with the conditions of your adaptors licence, therefore the licences must be compatible.

Learn more

It is common for different components of an OER to have a different licences. For example – you may want to use a snapshot of a flower for illustration. If there is nothing particularly special about the picture and/or you don’t mind about attribution you could apply a CC0 dedication to that image. You may also want to include a photograph of a student in which case an ND licence may be recommended provided the student has given their consent for publication of their image.

Often authors retain their copyright in the chapters they write, while the overall book copyright will belong to the institution or publisher. Authors are then free to choose different licences to suit their content.

Have a look at the copyright statements in some examples

Privacy and publicity

You may want to exclude photographs of people from the CC licences or apply a restrictive ND licence.

Make sure everyone who is identifiable in published photographs has agreed to their publication and licensing in writing.

Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property

Be considerate and respectful if your work contains traditional cultural expressions (TCE's) or culturally sensitive material that may not be appropriate for open access licensing.

Material that is not openly licensed can only be included in an OER if you have written permission from the copyright owner.

Always indicate if you obtained permission to use an 'all rights reserved' work or to use a CC licensed work in a way not permitted under the licence e.g. permission to use an BY NC work for a fundraiser or permission to modify a BY ND work for use in a translation.

Follow any specific attribution conditions or requirements if they are included with the permission.

For more information see the Requesting permission to use copyright material guide. A template letter for permission to use copyright work in an OER is included in the guide.

You will need to keep a record of all the sources and resources that you use or reuse in your content. 
The record will be used to:

• Ensure that resources licences are compatible with each other and with your adaptors licence (covered in step 3).
• Ensure sources are attributed according to Creative Commons best practice.
• Write an adaptation statement describing how you used the resources and what changes were made. For more information see Assign Creative Commons licence in the CAUL OER collective publishing workflow.

We recommend using a spreadsheet to keep track of content, but any document will do, provided the following key information is captured:

• Location in new OER
• New Title or caption
• Resource details: 
  • Author or Creator/s
  • Publication Date 
  • Resource type or part number
  • Resource Title
  • Source Details 
  • Publisher
  • Source URL
  • Date retrieved
  • Authorisation/licence for use? 
• Description of use:
  • How is the resource used? Copied / Adapted
  • Brief description of changes for adaptation statement

Prepare and share your content tracking file with other authors. Start adding information to it as you as you select resources to reuse in your OER. 

1. Ensure all contributors are familiar with copyright and CC licensing basics outlined above.
2. Confirm external collaborators have or can obtain the right to apply a CC licence to their work.
3. Decide who will own copyright for the overall book and individual chapters.
4. Choose CC licence/s for the overall work and/or individual sections.
5. Have all authors sign a copyright and licensing agreement (optional templates provided below).
6. Prepare and share a content tracking file with all authors. Start adding information to it as you select resources to reuse in your OER. 

Agreement templates