User:Jflorent/sandbox/using-cc-licenses

Using CC Licensed Works

Collections vs Adaptations

Collections

The distinction between Creative Commons (CC) adaptations and collections can be tricky. An adaptation, sometimes referred to as a derivative, is creating something new from a copyrighted work that is sufficiently original to itself be protected by copyright. Not all changes to a work result in the creation of an adaptation, such as spelling corrections and format shifting (e.g., from digital to print, print to audio, PDF to HTML).

In contrast to an adaptation, a collection involves the assembly of separate and independent creative works into a collective whole. A collection is not an adaption. Consider the following example of a collection of images that show possible unplanned events that could cause an interruption to course delivery. This collection assembles images to convey the need for instructional continuity plans. The images are works from various creators and are displayed individually in the collection.

You are required to provide attribution when you reuse CC licensed work. When you create a collection, you must provide attribution and licensing information about the individual works in your collection as shown in the above collection’s image attribution information. This gives the public the information they need to understand who created what and which license terms apply to specific content. Best practice for attribution is to provide the title, author, source, and license for the work.

When you combine material into a collection, you may have a separate copyright of your own that you may license. However, your copyright only extends to the new contributions you made to the work.

Adaptations

An adaptation/remix is a work based on one or more pre-existing works. Consider the following example of an adaption. While the images in the adapted work show a series of unplanned events, the images have been arranged in such a way that it creates a new original work.

Just like collections, adaptations also require you to provide attributions for the works you used to create the adapted work. A suggested attribution format for adapted works is “X (title) by you (author) is a derivative of Y (original work title, author, source, license) and Z (original work’s title, author, source, license)”. Refer to Best Practices for Attribution for more information on attributions.

Limitations

There are limits on whether and how you may share your adapted/remixed work.
General rules:

• If the underlying work is licensed under a NoDerivatives license, you can make and use changes privately but you cannot share your adaptation with others.
  
• If the underlying work is licensed under a ShareAlike license, then ShareAlike applies to your adaptation and you must license it under the same or a compatible license.
  
• You need to consider license compatibility. License compatibility is the term used to address the issue of which types of licensed works can be adapted into a new work.
  
• In all cases, you have to attribute the original work when you create an adaptation.
  

Adapting/remixing works with different licenses can be tricky. Use this Adapters License Chart as a guide.

Locating CC Licensed Works

Here are a few resources to try if you are looking for CC licensed works to use in your project:

• CC Search
  
• OER Commons
  
• List of major Creative Commons licensed works
  

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References

Creative Commons Certificate for Educators and Librarians course
Unit 4.3 Finding and Reusing CC-Licensed Work

Creative Commons Certificate for Educators and Librarians course
Unit 4.4 Remixing CC-Licensed Work

Best Practices for Attribution

Title Image Attribution: “CC Licensed Works” by jflorent licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 is a collection of Creative Commons icons used under CC BY-SA 3.0.

This work by Janice Florent is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License