Under U.S. law, original creations are automatically copyrighted as soon as the creator writes them down, draws them, or records them. Unless the creator transfers their copyright to someone else (a common part of the traditional publishing process), they have the exclusive right to reproduce, modify, distribute, and perform their work, and to allow other people to do so.
Like any other creation, open educational resources (OER) are also protected by copyright law. However, by adding a license on top of the copyright, creators can modify copyright's default settings and choose which of their exclusive rights they want to extend to other people. In other words, they can make their work open.
Open licenses usually come from the nonprofit Creative Commons. They're free, simple, standardized, and internationally recognized. Using a Creative Commons license is not giving up copyright. It lets the creator clarify exactly how others can reuse their work without having to reach out for explicit permission each time. This can make it easier for other educators and researchers to share materials with students and adapt them for different educational or cultural contexts.
Open licensing allows you to publish your own OER and to adapt and remix other people's OER. (Just remember that the vast majority of content is not openly licensed, even if it's available online for free!)
► Copyright and licensing issues are complex and very case-dependent. Please contact us for support!
Read this section if... you're publishing your original or remixed work as an OER.
Follow the steps below, starting with Step 1: Consider the Caveats.
However, if you're remixing or incorporating any content that someone else made (including text found online, images, and sound), please start with How To Reuse Someone Else's Work. Return to this section when you're ready to license your creation.
Creative Commons licenses cannot be revoked! Once you license, you can’t un-license. So, make sure you have a clear understanding of what this involves before you proceed.
Creative Commons licenses are "some rights reserved." They exist on a spectrum between standard copyright (all rights reserved) and the public domain (no rights reserved). Before selecting a license, think about what rights you would like to reserve for yourself, and what you want others to be able to do with your work.
Also consider the licenses and terms of any content you're reusing that someone else wrote (see How To Reuse Someone Else's Work for more information).
Creative Commons License Spectrum by Shaddim. CC BY 4.0
Use the Creative Commons license chooser tool, or review the license options below.
Each of the six Creative Commons licenses combines some or all of these four basic elements: Attribution (BY), Share Alike (SA), Non-Commercial (NC), and No Derivatives (ND). These are the licenses, from least to most restrictive:
This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work in any medium or format, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.
This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work in any medium or format, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.
This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, as long as attribution is given to the creator.
This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes only, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
The two "No Derivatives" licenses are more restrictive. CC BY-ND allows others to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use.
This license is the most restrictive of the six main licenses. It allows others to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
While not technically a Creative Commons license, you may also choose to waive all rights and release your work to the public domain. The "CC0" public domain dedication lets reusers distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, with no conditions.
Generate a text or HTML license notice using the License Chooser linked below. You can also write your own short attribution statement, making sure to link to the deed of the Creative Commons license you're using. Here are two examples:
Add the license to your work wherever it makes sense for you. This might be right below a single image or media file, at the bottom of a full website, or where a traditional copyright page would go.
Read this section if... you want to adapt, remix, or reuse someone else's open or non-open content (including media, images, etc.) in your OER.
Please note:
Follow the steps below to share, adapt, or remix content. Start with Step 1: Reusing Open Content.
These are usually prominently displayed on a homepage or at the bottom of a website, but may be hidden on an About or similar page. These will typically be a Creative Commons license, but you may also find a royalty-free/stock license (example) or a public domain declaration (example).
YES: Great! Review the terms of the license. Then follow the steps below.
NO: Consider searching for an equivalent resource in an open repository or asset library, because it will be easier to reuse! If you can't find something open that will work, proceed to Step 2: Reuse Non-Open Content.
If the resource you're reusing is licensed under Creative Commons, you can adapt or remix the content, with some caveats:
To use the chart, find the license you're applying to your work in the left column, and then locate the license of the work you wish to reuse in the top row. You can combine the works if there is a checkmark in the cell where the row and column intersect.
Are your licenses compatible?
YES: Great! Proceed to Step 3: Write Attributions.
NO: The X means that the works probably cannot be combined without explicit permission. Please review the information in Step 2: Reuse Non-Open Content.
These may be hidden in a Usage Policies, Terms & Conditions, Terms of Use, About, Rights & Restrictions, or similar page. You may need to do a keyword search within the website.
YES: Great! Review the terms, and proceed to Step 3: Write Attributions.
NO: If the terms require you to request permission, or if you can't find any terms & conditions, review Requesting Permission From Copyright Holders. If you make a good-faith effort to contact the copyright holder and receive no response, you may wish to review What About Fair Use? below.
If the content you want to reuse does not have an explicitly open or Creative Commons license, it likely falls under default copyright restrictions. To adapt, modify, or reuse it, you'll need to contact the copyright holder for permissions. (There's a chance they may not grant them, but it's always worth a try!)
Consider using a permission letter like this one:
Once you've received permission, proceed to Step 3: Write Attributions to credit the copyright holder.
Fair use is a component of copyright law that permits the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain situations.
Fair use is up to legal interpretation, and there are no hard and fast rules. That said, you are responsible for performing a fair use analysis to determine whether your reuse of copyrighted material is more or less defensible. The resources below may help you with this process.
(Please note: The Libraries can share guidelines with you, but only you as the reuser can perform a fair use analysis! Please contact the Office of General Counsel with legal questions.)
Proper attribution allows users to access the original work, identify the original creators, and know what license terms apply to specific content. It's required in most cases, and it's a good practice even for royalty-free, stock, or AI-generated content.
Attribution is different from traditional academic citation. Unless the copyright holder has a preferred attribution style, how exactly you write your attributions is generally very flexible -- whether you're reusing text, an image, a video, or anything else.
The best practice is to include these four components:
Putting them together might look something like this example. Note that each element – title, author, CC license – links to the source:
Here is another real-life example from an OER textbook that remixes multiple sources. The body of the text includes footnotes numbers that correspond to an Attributions section (separate from the References section) at the end of the chapter:
[5] Center on Multi-Tiered System of Supports. (2024). Essential Components of MTSS [image]. American Institutes for Research. https://mtss4success.org/
[6] "Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)" [section] is from "About CAPTA: A Legislative History" by the Child Welfare Information Gateway of the Children's Bureau, Administration of Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Content is in the public domain.
[7] "Public Health Considerations" [section] is from Social Determinants of Health (Ch. 14) in "Family Partnerships: Building Trusting, Responsive, and Child-Focused Collaborations" by Adria Hoffman, Christine Spence, Maryam Sharifian, Judy Paulick, and Rachel W. Bowman, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
One example of an attribution:
Excited to learn more about copyright, licensing, and intellectual property? We know you are! Dig deeper with the resources below.
