Copyright

• Copyright is a legal right created by law that gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to its use and education.

• Copy protection exists from the moment a work is created.

• If you reproduce, republish, or redistribute something produced by someone else without the copyright holders permission, there is a good chance you are violating copyright law.

Fair Use

• Fair use is used to describe situations where using someone else's work is allowed.

• Fair use allows copyrighted material to be used for news reporting, research, and classroom instruction.

The four fair use factors are as follows:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2. The nature of the copyrighted work, such as whether the work is fiction or non-fiction, published or unpublished;

3. The amount of the work used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, such as using a poem in its entirety, or using one chapter from a long book;

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for the copyrighted work

   • The Fair Use Checklist from Baylor University will help you determine whether or not a use of a copyrighted work is a “fair use”.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons licenses give users the freedom to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.

• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose.

-creativecommons.org

Public Domain

When a work is in the public domain, it is free for use by anyone for any purpose without restriction under copyright law. Public domain is the purest form of open/free, since no one owns or controls the material in any way.

Creative Commons licenses do not affect the status of a work that is in the public domain under applicable law, because our licenses only apply to works that are protected by copyright.

-wiki.creativecommons.org