These are the two categories of intellectual property that is always fair to use:
1. Works in the public domain. These works would include:
- those whose intellectual property rights have expired (not sure? Check out this handy dandy chart!);
- government documents.
- Libraries, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions are just beginning to identify public domain works in their collections…their Public Domain Mark looks like this:
2. SOME open access resources.
- Open access means “free and unrestricted online availability” of literature as defined by the Budapest Open Access Initiative. It does NOT always mean that the author gave away their intellectual property rights for regular unrestricted use, so it is always good to double check.
- In most cases, people who publish open access resources will provide a Creative Commons license which clearly states what rights the content creator and user would have.
KNOW THE CODE! Here are the six examples of Creative Commons licenses, from LEAST restrictive to MOST restrictive:
The Licenses
Attribution
CC BY
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.
Attribution-ShareAlike
CC BY-SA
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.
Attribution-NoDerivs
CC BY-ND
This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.
Attribution-NonCommercial
CC BY-NC
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.
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA
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.
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND
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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