Module 3: Open Licensing

Copyright is a legal mechanism that protects the Moral and Economic Rights of Content Creators in association with their Works. In Canada, copyright protection generally lasts for 50 years after the death of the Content Creator. When this period of time lapses, the work enters into the public domain and its use is free and unrestricted.

The term ‘Content Creator’ refers to authors, artists, musicians, performers, photographers, movie and music producers, etc.

The term ‘Works’ refers to artistic, dramatic, literary, and musical works as well as sound recordings, performers’ performances, and broadcast signals.

Moral Rights: means that content creators have the right to protect their reputations and the integrity of their Works.

Economic Rights: means that content creators have the right to exploit the economic potential of their Works by controlling how their Works are used.

Failure to respect Moral Rights and the exercising of any Economic Rights without the authorization of the Content Creator would constitute copyright infringement. However, the use may be authorized by copyright limitations (such as fair use) described below.

See the library's website for more information.

The Copyright Act contains a select number of exceptions, prescribed uses of copyright-protected works that would not constitute copyright as long as the conditions and requirements are adhered to. The Fair Dealing exception is described below.

The use of a work for the following purposes does not constitute copyright infringement as per Section 29 of the Copyright Act:

• Research, Private Study, News Reporting, Criticism, Review, Parody or Satire, and Education

Six factors must be considered when determining whether the dealing with a work is fair:

1) Purpose of the dealing

2) Character of the dealing

3) Amount of the Dealing

4) Availability of Alternatives

5) Nature of the work

6) Effect of the dealing on the work.

See the library's website for more information.

An open license exists as a way for the original creator to clearly inform others how their work can be used by granting permissions to share and adapt their work. A Public Domain license and the variety of open license permissions known as Creative Commons (CC) are the predominant standards for open licenses. In Module 4 you will learn more about the six different CC license options and their spectrum of permissions they offer creators.

A public domain work is a creative work that is not protected by copyright, which means it’s free for you to use without permission. Works in the public domain are those for which intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable.

Here are some examples of works in the public domain:

• Material created by the US Government, such as pictures taken by NASA

• Materials for which Copyright Protection has lapsed, such as “New Hampshire” by Robert Frost

• Works released to the public domain when they were created, such as images on Pexels