# Welcome to SMIRK Unit
10 - Copyright Basics
and Reusing content

- What is copyright?
- How long does it last?
- So what?
- Reusing content
- Creative Commons licences
- Examples of common CC licences
- Guidance on using OERs
- Finding reusable resources
- Back to main index

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# What is copyright?

This unit covers how copyright applies in higher education. We start off with some basic facts about copyright, then look at some of the licensing schemes in use. We also list some of the exceptions to copyright law.

You can't copyright an idea, but you can copyright the expression of that idea. In the UK, the minute an idea becomes fixed, then the creator owns it. Basically, copyright is a way of protecting the creator's rights. The main law in the UK is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 with amendments to update it for the digital age, these apply from June 2014.

How does it apply? There are three criteria:

- It must be original
- It must be fixed
- The author of the work must be a qualified national of a country that recognises copyright law or if published, the country of first publication must recognise copyright law

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# How long does it last?

Item type | Years
--- | ---
Broadcasts | 50 from creation
Sound recordings | 50 from creation
Films | 70 from death of key contributor
Typographical arrangement | 25 years from creation
Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works | 70 from death of creator
Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works (computer generated) | 50 from creation

*Typographical arrangement is copyright to the publisher of journal article.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# Copyright and education

The use of materials protected by copyright is essential to the learning process. Educational resources exist in all formats that are recognised as 'works' in copyright law. Now we will loook at what you want to do. Do you want to:

- Reuse content
- Create your own content
- Learn about copyright exceptions for education

Further information and training

For further information on copyright in higher education visit the Copyright User website. The library can also provide copyright advice, please email copyright@gcu.ac.uk

JISC legal have produced online copyright training which gives practical advice for staff in HE. You will need to register before logging in for the first time.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# Reusing content

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are digital materials that are made available online to be used or re-purposed for teaching, learning and research. They can include images, audio, video, animations, content modules and other digital resources.

Why use OERs rather than create your own content? There are several good reasons:

- You can take existing resources and develop them in ways that suit your needs.
- You can develop high quality resources on your own or with a small team of staff.
- You can save time and duplication of effort.
- You can build on best practice by experts in your subject area.
- You can use resources which you may not have the software, equipment or facilities to create yourself.

Copyright concerns

To guarantee you stay legal when reusing content follow these three simple steps:

- Reuse only licensed content (the most common licensing scheme is Creative Commons)
- Keep to the terms of the licence
- Cite the content you use

The law includes a number of exceptions that allow for the use of all types of copyright work for certain educational purposes. For more information visit our copyright exceptions for education page.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# Creative Commons
licences

When content is created copyright on it is automatically assigned under UK law. The creator doesn't need to use the copyright symbol or assert their rights as creator, the very fact that they have given the idea a fixed form means that they own the copyright. You can’t ignore copyright when reusing resources, but you can ensure you stay legal by only using licensed content.The Creative Commons (CC) licensing movement was set up to enable creators to specify how they would like their content to be used. CC licences are legally binding and internationally recognised. CC licensed content is easy to reuse as the licence states exactly what you can and can’t do with the content. They are made up of five main components which are combined to specify how a resource can be reused:

- CC = Creative Commons - Signifies a legally binding Creative Commons licence.
- BY = Attribution - You must cite the original source when reusing content.
- ND = No Derivatives - You must not alter or change the content when reusing it.
- SA = Share Alike - You must license your new resource under the same terms when reusing content.
- NC = Non-Commercial - You must not make commercial gain from your new resource when reusing content.

You will normally find a number of these elements have been added together to produce a licence. The next page gives some examples.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.

# Common CC licences

Here are some common examples of CC licences:

- ‌ CC-BY lets you distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work, even commercially, as long as you credit the creator.
- ‌ CC-BY-SA lets you distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work, even commercially, as long as you credit the creator and license your new creations under identical terms.
- ‌ CC-BY-ND allows redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as the content is passed along unchanged and you credit the creator.
- ‌ CC-BY-NC lets you distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work non-commercially, as long as you credit the creator.

CC0 – Public domain licence

‌ There is one CC licence that we have not yet mentioned. CC0, or a public domain licence, lets creators place their content in the public domain so that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse the work for any purpose without any restrictions. This means that you don’t need to give credit to the creators when you reuse their work and that you can alter it freely. An example of this would be the Open Clipart collection, where you can reuse items without having to even attribute the source.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# Guidance on using OERs

Staff and students may wish to use Open Educational Resources (OERs) to support learning and teaching, including images, audio or video resources, animations and other digital resources.

- GCU encourages staff and students to use OERs to enhance the quality of the student experience, provided that resources used are fit-for-purpose and relevant.
- When using OERs, students and staff must comply with the terms of the licence of use. For example, if the original resource has a share-alike component to its licence, then the resulting composite OER should be published under the same licence as the original.
- Cite the OERs you use. Include as much information as possible, especially the title and author of the resource, a link to where you found the content online, and a note of the licence applied to the content. If you cannot identify all of these elements then just include as many of them as you can.

A standard citation format is:
Type of content: Title by Author. Link (Licence)

For example:
Image: The Thinker by John Smith. http://commons.wikimedia.org (CC-BY-SA-3.0)

- OERs used by individual staff and students should normally be single units (learning objects) or small collections (such as podcast episodes or small collections of images) rather than whole courses.
- All OERs used should where possible comply with the GCU guidance on accessibility.

For further advice and guidance email copyright@gcu.ac.uk or call the library’s Digital Development team on 0141 273 1249.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

# Finding reusable
resources

- Creative Commons (CC) search allows you to discover CC licensed content from across the web. Enter your search terms and select a service to search depending on whether you want to find images, music or video. Check the licence applied to each resource to see what you can and cannot do with it.
- JISC MediaHub is a subscription service for UK higher education. Log in with your domain username and password and browse by collection. Alternatively enter your search terms and chose to search for video, images or music using the tick boxes at the top of the page. Check the rights statement for each resource to see what you can and cannot do with it. If this does not provide enough information then the Terms of Use link on each resource should provide greater detail.
- Jorum is a UK service which collects and shares 1000’s of Open Educational Resources (OERs). Enter your search terms or browse using the drop-down menu on the right of the page. Most items in Jorum are licensed using Creative Commons, so check the licence applied to each resource to see what you can and cannot do with it.
- Morguefile is a database of photographs contributed by a wide range of artists. Enter your search terms and select Free Photos from the drop-down search, or browse by selecting Free Photos at top left of the page. Check the licence terms applied to each image to see what you can and cannot do with it.
- Xpert is an OER repository run by the University of Nottingham providing data for over 100,000 learning objects from over 8,000 providers. After conducting a search select a resource to download it together with a built-in attribution statement. Check the licence applied to each resource to see what you can and cannot do with it.

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SMIRK - Copyright in action by Marion Kelt, GCU is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.