To understand copyright, it is worth looking at how it developed through history:
(…to continue)
Go Home
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.
Licences allow copyright owners to permit others to use the owned work. They can be exclusive, non-exclusive and open.
Licences should not be confused with the assignment of rights, where the copyright ownership is transferred from one entity to another.
The reuse of material has to fall within the terms allowed by the licence chosen by the copyright holder, apart from the following scenarios:
Licenced material may be purchased through paid agreements (for example, through an institutional licence or contracts) or accessed for free if released to the public with an open licence or following an ad hoc permission granted by the copyright holder.
Look at the following categories to know more:
What are open licences?
A free or open licence is a licensing
agreement that allows individuals…
Back Home
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.
In this section, you will find information on copyright and the answers to common questions on the Law:
See Licences
Back Home
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.
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…
There are two public domain tools:
CC0 is a legal tool to enable creators to dedicate their works to the worldwide public domain to the greatest extent possible.
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.
See also Using Wikimedia
Back Home
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.