Creative Commons

in the Classroom

Examples of howstudents can useCreative Commons

Tobias, a 14 year old pupil at aschool in Toronto, is interestedin birds. He records differentbirdsongs and posts them asmp3 files on his blog. Hechooses a Creative Commonslicense giving otherspermission to reuse his soundfiles.Jesse, a 12 year old pupil at aschool in Winnipeg, is doingan assignment on NorthAmerican birds. She writes her own texts, takes photos andpublishes her schoolwork onthe net. However, Jesse needsto find some sound files of realbirdsongs. She finds Tobias’work and adds a couple of files to her assignment. Shealso chooses a CreativeCommons license givingothers permission to reuse her photos.Hanako, a pupil at a school inVancouver, is doing a projecton foreign mammals andbirds. She finds Jesse’s workand uses some of the photosin her own project. Hanakochooses then to publish her texts using a license thatallows others to reuse them for non-commercial purposes.

In this way all three pupilsbenefit from Creative Commonsand do not run the risk of breaking copyright legislationwhen using each other’s material.

The age at which students can legally enter into a contract, varies by province, state, and country.Students younger than the age of majority must have parent permission to license their work.

All texts, photos, films and sound recordings, basically everything you create, are owned by you as author.This ownership makes it possible for you to decide how your work may bedistributed and used.

The copyright law gives the author fullownership of his/her work. That’s whyanyone wishing to use your work mustask you, the author, for permission touse it. Many authors want their work tobe distributed as widely as possibleand therefore wish to give others theright to use their work. This is whereCreative Commons comes into thepicture.Creative Commons is a non-profitorganization that provides copyrightlicenses that can be used by anyonewith material that they have created.The licenses are free to use anywherein the world. By using a CreativeCommons license you are able to stateclearly that you give permission for others to use your work and under which conditions. The license statesclearly which rights and limitationsapply when using your work. In thisway people can easily see how youwish your work to be used and they donot need to ask for your permission touse it.

Creative Commons – 4 Conditions

Creative Commons comprises sixdifferent licenses. By combining four conditions in six different ways youobtain the different types of license.Each condition has its own symbol:

Attribution

You must acknowledge the author, thename of the work, and the license thatapplies for the work.

No derivative works

You let others copy, distribute, display,and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works basedupon it.

Non-commercial

You let others copy, distribute, display,and perform your work - and derivativeworks based upon it - but for non-commercial purposes only.

Share alike

You allow others to distribute derivativeworks only under a license identical tothe license that governs your work.