Author: Erica Levi

What is Open Access in scholarship?

13 December 2021 / Erica Levi

The Open Access an orange open lock symbol.

Open Access (OA) is a set of principles and practices through which research output is distributed online free of charge.

OA aim to increase the impact and exploitation of scholarly communications in opposition to the limiting nature of the traditional fee-paying system.

Components of OA include:

Authors keep their copyright
Access to output without embargo
Application of a CC licence that enables text and data mining

A publication realised with a Creative Commons licence that includes the NonDerivative element is not considered Open Access.

GREEN Open Access

Usually, an earlier version (manuscript) of a publication is made freely available in a repository (self-archiving) through, for example:

University research repositories
Subject repositories, such as arXv or PubMed
Repositories managed by research funders, such as an example Zenodo

GOLD Open Access

The published version of the publication is made freely available upon publication by the publisher with an open licence. Open Access journals may charge an Article Processing Charge (APC) to make it open.

The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

Creative Commons adapters and remixers licence chart

13 December 2021 / Erica Levi

The following chart from the Creative Commons is a guide to ensure that adaptations comply with the licences’ terms.

The left-hand column identifies the licence of the original work to use in the adaptation.

By looking across the table, it shows the available licences for the new creation.

The table is titled "Adapter's licence chart" and details the compatibility of different licences for adapting works based on their original licence. It helps determine which licences are compatible for adapting works, ensuring proper usage and adherence to licensing terms. The table is organised with the "Status of original work" listed in the leftmost column and the "Adapter's licence" types listed across the top row. The intersections of these rows and columns are colour-coded to indicate compatibility: green cells represent permissible combinations, yellow cells represent permissible combinations with some restrictions, and grey cells represent combinations that are not allowed. Colour-coded details: for Public Domain as original work, all adapter licences are green; for By Attribution as original work, it is green for BY, BY-NC, BY-NC-ND, BY-NC-SA, BY-SA, BY-ND and yellow for PD; for By Attribution NonCommercial as original work, it is green for BY-NC, BY-NC-ND, BY-NC-SA and yellow for BY-NC, BY-ND, BY-SA, PD; for By Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivs as original work, it is grey for all adapter licences; for By Attribution NonCommercial-ShareAlike as original work, it is green for BY-NC-SA only and grey for all other adapter licences; for By Attribution NoDerivs as original work, it is grey for all adapter licences; for By Attribution ShareAlike as original work, it is green for BY-SA only and grey is grey for all adapter licences.

CC does not recommend using a licence if the corresponding box is yellow, although doing so is technically permitted by the licence terms.
The grey boxes indicate those licences that one may not use as an adapter’s licence.

Examples:

If one adapts a BY-NC work, the BY-NC will do for the adaptation.
If one adapts a BY work, either BY or BY-NC will do for the adaptation.
Work licensed with BY-SA or BY-NC-SA must have the same licence applied for the adaptation.

Another type of licence compatibility relates to licences when remixing more than one pre-existing work.

Find on the left column a licence of the works and match it with the one on the top to discover a licence that may apply to a second work:

A ‘tick’ at the intersection means that works under those two licences can be remixed.
An ‘X’ usually means the works may not be remixed.

When deciding on a licence to use for the adaptation, it is better to choose the more restrictive of the two licences on the works that are getting combined, to ease reuse for downstream users.

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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

Considerations on remixed/adapted and derivative works for Creative Commons licensed material

13 December 2021 / Erica Levi

An adaptation/remix brings together material from different sources to create a wholly new creation where one often cannot tell where one work ends, and another begins.

An example of an education adaptation would be an open textbook chapter that originates from multiple open educational resources in such a way that readers cannot tell which resource was used on which page without looking at endnotes

In all cases, one has to attribute the original work when you create an adaptation. It is important to provide attribution to the individual parts that went into making the adaptation.
If the original work was licensed under a NoDerivatives licence 4.0, one can make and use changes privately but cannot share it with others.
One has to check licence compatibility to verify which types of licensed works can be adapted into a new work; for example, if the original work was licensed under a ShareAlike licence, one can only license the new work with the same or a compatible licence (see here).

When creating an adaptation of a CC-licensed work, the simplest scenario is when one takes a single CC-licensed work and adapts it.

The more complicated scenario is when one is adapting two or more CC-licensed works into a new work. The Adapter’s Licence has to consider the original licence that will continue to govern the reuse of the elements from the original work.

Forward to Creative Commons’ adapters and remixers licence chart

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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

How can I use works on Wikimedia and Wikipedia?

10 December 2021 / Erica Levi

Wikimedia and Wikipedia’s material minimum standard licence is the Creative Commons By Attribution ShareAlike.

You will be able to find material labelled with the Creative Commons By Attribution and the public domain.

Please note that Wikimedia and Wikipedia’s material are distributed under the US copyright law. Use care in selecting items licensed in the public domain are not necessarily so in the UK or other countries. It is advisable to follow the link to the original source and seek released and licence information from it rather than rely on what is displayed on Wikipedia/Wikimedia.

Assuming that the work is correctly licensed from Wikimedia, you may click on the world icon to discover the following:

Page URL
File URL
Preferred attribution
Scripts to embed both attribution and file

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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

How do you reference and acknowledge Creative Commons licensed works?

10 December 2021 / Erica Levi

The complete and correct form is:

“[title]” was created by [author]. © ([year]). [owner if different]. Licensed [e.g. CC BY-SA 4.0 (URL licence). Available from [URL].

However, it is permissible to use a shorter version:

Examples:

“Intellectual Property, Copyright and the Creative Commons” was created by Erica Wine. © 2020. Coventry University. Licensed CC BY 4.0.
It is an adaption of the content from the Creative Commons Certificate Course of the January 2020 Creative Commons Certificate by the Creative Commons, licensed CC BY 4.0. Available from https://certificates.creativecommons.org/about/certificate-resources-cc-by/

“Proptosis” was created by Yasser A (2017). Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Available from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Proptosis.jpg

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Number © Getty Images

The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

Fair dealing and the reuse of Creative Commons licensed works

10 December 2021 / Erica Levi

Unless the person using the work received separate permission or relied on fair dealing or other exceptions to copyright, they are potentially liable for copyright infringement.

If someone uses a CC-licensed work without following the licence, their right to use the work ends automatically as soon as they violate its terms.

Under CC version 4.0, users of CC-licensed works who come into compliance with licence terms within 30 days of discovering they were in violation of the terms have their rights under the licence automatically reinstated.

Sometimes, these types of disputes can end up in court.
Judicial decisions have been made in various places worldwide, and no courts have ever questioned the validity of the CC licence.

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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

4. What is the public domain?

10 December 2021 / Erica Levi

The Public Domain (PD) consists of creative works not subject to copyright to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply (no licence can apply, not even the Creative Commons licences).

Such creative works are publicly available, and new creativity and knowledge may be built from them.

No acknowledgements are legally required, but it is proper to do so to demonstrate academic integrity.

See How do you reference and acknowledge Public Domain material?

PD allows one to do almost anything to a creation; however, a work in the PD…

May still be covered by moral rights in some countries
Could still be under copyright in some countries (limiting the use of the work where it still applies)
May still be subject to other IP restrictions (such as trademark protection, which is independent of copyright protection and may still exist even though the work is in the Public Domain)
Any reproduction of work in the public domain may be freshly subject to copyright.

There are two public domain tools:

A zero with a line through it, inside a circle.

The same icon of a barred 0 with the words Public Domain, circumscribed in a rectangle.

CC0 is a legal tool to enable creators to dedicate their works to the worldwide public domain to the greatest extent possible.

A circle with a C inside and a line running diagonally across it.

The same icon of a circle with a barred C with the words Public Domain, circumscribed in a rectangle.

The Public Domain Mark is a label used to inform the public about the public domain status of a work, and it is often used by museums and archives working with very old works. It marks works known to be free of all copyright restrictions. It is not a legal tool and has no legal effect when applied to a work.

Refer to the handy workflows on how long copyright lasts.

What are the six Creative Commons licences?

10 December 2021 / Erica Levi

When combined, the four licence elements form the six CC licences:

A rectangle circumscribing two circles next to each other: one slightly bigger with the letter CC and the second with a graphic of a man. — CC BY

Attribution lets others distribute, remix, tweak and build upon the work, even commercially, as long as it is credited to the original owner.

^{BY – Credit must be given to the creator}

A rectangle circumscribing three circles next to each other: one slightly bigger with the letter CC, the second with a graphic of a man and the third with a line through over a $ sign. — CC BY NC

Attribution-NonCommercial lets others remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially. Although the new works must acknowledge the original owner and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

^{BY – Credit must be given to the creator}
^{NC – Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted}

A rectangle circumscribing two circles next to each other: one slightly bigger with the letter CC and the second with a C-shaped arrow pointing counter-clockwise. — BY SA

Attribution-ShareAlike lets others remix, tweak, and build upon the work, even for commercial purposes, as long as the original copyright owner is credited and the new creation is licensed under identical terms.
All new works will carry the same licence so that any derivatives will allow commercial use.

^{BY – Credit must be given to the creator}
^{SA – Adaptations must be shared under the same terms}

Attribution-NoDerivs allows for commercial and non-commercial redistribution as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the original copyright owner.

^{BY – Credit must be given to the creator}
^{ND – No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted}

A rectangle circumscribing four circles next to each other: one slightly bigger with the letter CC, the second with a graphic of a man, the third with a line through over a dollar “$” sign, and the fourth with a C-shaped arrow pointing counter-clockwise. — BY NC SA

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike lets others remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the original owner is credited and the licence of the new creation is under identical terms.

^{BY – Credit must be given to the creator}
^{NC – Only non-commercial uses of the work are permitted}
^{SA – Adaptations must be shared under the same terms}

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs is the most restrictive of the six licences, allowing others to download and share work, as long as they credit it to the original copyright owner; however, works cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.

^{BY – Credit must be given to the creator}
^{NC – Only non-commercial uses of the work are permitted}
^{No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted}

In addition, CC also has two public domain tools, though they are not licences.

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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

How do the Creative Commons licences work technically?

10 December 2021 / Erica Levi

The licences are built using a three-layer design:

The legal code is the “lawyer-readable” terms and conditions legally enforceable in court.
The commons deeds summarize the legal code and consist of web pages that lay out the key licence terms in “human-readable” format.
The machine-readable version makes it easy for websites and web services to know when a work is available under a CC licence – a recognition that software plays a critical role in creating, copying, discovering, and distributing works.

Three layers are stacked vertically and slightly separated to show their sections clearly. They represent visually the Creative Commons licences, where each layer is labelled and visually distinct: the top layer, labelled "Machine Readable” and featuring a barcode, indicates the layer designed for straightforward interpretation by computers and software; the middle layer, labelled "Human Readable" and showing two icons (A graphic of a man inside a circle next to a C-shaped arrow pointing counter-clockwise inside a second circle), signifies that this part of the license is written in a way that is easily understandable by people; and a bottom layer, labelled "Legal Code" with a faded appearance and including the same markets as the latter, represents the formal, legal text of the license, providing the detailed legal framework. — Three layers of the licence sit on top of each other. Layers © Creative Commons. Licensed under a CC BY 4.0 licence

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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.

What are the elements of the Creative Commons?

10 December 2021 / Erica Levi

The following icons represent the four licence elements:

Attribution or “BY” indicates that the original creator needs to be acknowledged.
^{All of the CC licences include this condition.}

A graphic of a circle with a line through it followed by a C-shaped arrow pointing counter-clockwise inside a third circle

ShareAlike or “SA” indicates that adaptations based on this work must be licensed under the same licence.
^{Two of the CC licences include this condition.}

A graphic of a "$" inside a circle with a line through it.

NonCommercial or “NC” means that the work is only available to be used for non-commercial purposes.
^{Three of the CC licences include this restriction}^.

NoDerivatives or “ND” indicates that re-users cannot share work adaptations.
^{Two of the CC licences include this restriction.}

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The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.