Using CC Licenses and CC-Licensed Works

As an instructor, one of the powerful benefits of CC licensing is the greater pool of materials available to incorporate and/or adapt into your own teaching materials. To take full advantage of this potential, it will be helpful to familiarize yourself with the differences between creating collections and adapting works with CC licenses (remixing). This distinction is an especially tricky aspect of copyright law. When simply sharing CC-licensed works, all that is required of you is to provide attribution. If the work is licensed with one of the NonCommercial licenses, you must refrain from using it for commercial purposes.

While it is simple enough to share a CC-licensed work, there is a bit more to consider if you decide to make changes or incorporate it into a new work. This section will help you properly utilize works with different licenses, especially as you gather resources to incorporate into your incentive project(s).

*Note* If you would like to make alterations to a work or incorporate it into something new, the designated CC license will help guide how you are permitted to use the work. However, if the use of the work falls under a copyright exception or limitation (e.g. fair use), then there is no obligation to follow the parameters of the license.

Some CC licenses do not allow remixing under different licenses. The compatibility chart below indicates which CC licenses can be remixed and under which licenses. To use the chart, select a license on the left column and on the top right row. If there is a checkmark in the box where that row and column intersect, then the works can be remixed. If there is an “X” in the box, then the work is not permitted to be remixed unless an exception or limitation applies.

Remixes/Adapted Works/Derivative Works

An adaptation (sometimes known as derivative work) is a new creation that derives from a copyrighted work but must satisfy a certain level of originality to be protected by copyright.

While sufficiency of uniqueness is not always easy to determine, the work itself must be considered based on or derived from the original. 

The concept of an adaptation has been illustrated with a smoothie. Individual fruits are blended together resulting in a completely new concoction. After blending the individual ingredients are no longer distinguishable. Attribution for the individual works, however, is still required.

Here are a few examples of adaptations:

• a film based on a novel
• the translation of a book from one language to another
• a chapter in an open textbook that blends multiple open educational resources

Note: Spelling corrections do not result in the creation of an adaption. Similarly, using a work in a different format such as a print publication that is digitized is not considered an adaptation.

Licensing Considerations

According to Creative Commons, NoDerivatives (ND) licenses permit remixing or adaptations for private use only. The remixed work cannot be publicly shared or distributed. Pre-4.0 licenses do not permit remixing at all, except as allowed by exceptions and limitations to copyright. While all CC licenses allow remixes, there may be limitations and conditions.

Remember, adaptations with ShareAlike licenses must be licensed under the same terms.

For additional information, please refer to Creative Commons’ FAQs for guidance.

Collections

The concept of a collection is to keep the original creative work intact (i.e. not editing, remixing, adapting, etc.) while integrating it into a collective work. While an adaptation can be thought of as a smoothie, a collection is more like a fruit salad. Each individual work — the pineapples, strawberries, grapes, etc. — is part of this fruit salad (unique collection).

Licensing Considerations

When you curate a collection, the collection is comprised of individual works. Each individual work within the collection requires attribution and licensing information (see example below.) The collection itself can be licensed, but the license only applies to the collection’s particular arrangement. Remember, the designated collection license does not apply to the individual works.

Examples:

“Corgis: A Collection Example” by Christina Hilburger is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International License.

Additional collection examples include:

• encyclopedias
• anthologies of writings by various authors
• an album compilation of ’90s pop hits

Attribution

This section is an adaptation of Using CC Licenses and CC-Licensed Works (on Creative Commons Certificate for Educators, Academic Librarians and GLAM) by Creative Commons, and is used under a CC BY 4.0 license.