Copyright and Creative Commons Licensing

Copyright and Fair Use for Faculty

Creative Commons as a More Open Publishing Option

Creative Commons Licenses ExplainedThis link will take you to an external website in a new tab.

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Attribution

This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, 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.

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Attribution-ShareAlike

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, 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.

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Attribution-NoDerivs

This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

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Attribution-NonCommercial

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially

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CC0

The CC0 toolThis link will take you to an external website in a new tab. allows licensors to waive all rights and place a work in the public domain

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Public Domain

The Public Domain MarkThis link will take you to an external website in a new tab. allows any web user to “mark” a work as being in the public domain..

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Sharing your work on MERLOT.org

Once the online course materials are authored, authors are encouraged to catalog their materials in MERLOT so other faculty and students can benefit from their time and talents invested in creating the content. It’s simple to catalog your online course content (or other websites you find that you use in your teaching) in MERLOT and help people find quality materials.