9. Copyright and Creative Commons

Licensee or licensor

• If you use CC licensed works in your assignment or teaching materials you are a licensee. See Licences and attribution in the Find and use media module.
• If you create a new work and license it with a CC license you are a licensor.
• If you reuse a CC licensed work in your own work and apply a new CC licence, then you are a licensee AND licensor.

Applying a CC licence to your own work

CC Licenses and Public Domain dedications (CC0) are irrevocable, so make sure you’ve made the correct decision before releasing your work.

Considerations

• Are you the copyright owner? Check employers IP policy, check IP agreements with funding bodies, check contract agreements, check commercial publisher agreements.
• Are you a member of a Collecting Society such as APRA or AMCOS or Copyright Agency Australia?
• Are there any other IP considerations such as photos of people, photos of other people’s work, private information, trade secrets? Does your work include any trademarks or logos (for example the Charles Sturt logo?).

Choosing a licence

There are 6 CC Licenses plus the Public Domain Tool – which one should you use?

• Whichever license you choose, you retain the right of attribution or credit for the work.
• Think about why you are sharing the work and how you want others to use it.
• Does your work include remixes or adaptations of other works or does your work include a collection of other works?

CC has a tool with simple questions that can be used as a guide for choosing a license.

Also see the CC FAQs for choosing a license

Adaptors licence

The original license always applies to the work used in an adaptation. The license you choose for your own creative contribution is called the “Adaptors license”
Users of your derivative work must comply with both the CC license of the original work and your adaptors license.

When reusing more than one original work in a new creation, licenses of the different originals must be compatible so downstream users can use your adaptation without breaching license conditions of any of the originals.

The individual works in a collection retain their original licenses. The copyright and license for the collective work only applies to new work or the layout and organisation of the collection.

If you are adapting a work under a CC license, you must attribute the original work and indicate that you have made changes. Do not use the attribution in a way that suggests or implies the licensor endorses your use.

How do you want to be attributed?

• When licensing your own work, it is good practice to include the attribution information. This makes it easier for users to attribute you correctly.
• The Creative Commons license chooser tool includes an attribution building option.
• Clearly indicate if your license does not extend to elements included in the work, for example “Except for logo’s and trademarks.