OER are resources that are in the public domain or have an open license on them, such as a Creative Commons (CC) license. CC licenses are the gold standard for open copyright licenses, and all content in the UH OER Repository must display an appropriate copyright license to let others know how they can reuse the learning content.

CC License Suit

You will be selecting one of six CC licenses, based on the rights you wish to grant others to reuse your work.

These concepts combine to form the four CC licenses appropriate for OER:

• CC BY (Attribution)
• CC BY-SA (Attribution-ShareAlike)
• CC BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial)
• CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike)

Two additional licenses are available to place on work, but they do not grant remixing rights and so are not appropriate for OER:

• CC BY-ND (Attribution-NoDerivs)
• CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs)

Think ahead about granting rights to have your work shared and built upon legally with a Creative Commons license. Consider the following concepts:

Attribution (BY)

You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.

Example: Jane publishes her photograph with an Attribution license because she wants the world to use her pictures provided they give her credit. Bob finds her photograph online and wants to display it on the front page of his website. Bob puts Jane’s picture on his site, and clearly indicates Jane’s authorship.

NonCommercial (NC)

You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only.

Examples: Gus publishes his photograph on his website with a Noncommercial license. Camille prints Gus’ photograph. Camille is not allowed to sell the print photograph without Gus’s permission.

No Derivative Works (ND)

You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, but do not allow derivative works to be created from it.

Example: Sara licenses a recording of her song with a No Derivative Works license. Joe would like to cut Sara’s track and mix it with his own to produce an entirely new song. Joe cannot do this without Sara’s permission (unless his use is found to be fair).

Share Alike (SA)

You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

Example: Gus’s online photo is licensed under the Noncommercial and Share Alike terms. Camille is an amateur collage artist, and she takes Gus’s photo and puts it into one of her collages. This Share Alike language requires Camille to make her collage available on a Noncommercial plus Share Alike license. It makes her offer her work back to the world on the same terms Gus gave her.