Understanding U.S. Copyright law can be challenging, especially in the digital environment. Exemptions exist for classroom teaching, libraries, and online learning, but these can be tricky to figure out and apply properly. Instead, one option is to use works in the public domain, which do not need permission for use. Another option is to use Creative Commons licensing, which offers varying degrees of permissions. The advent of authors applying Creative Commons licenses to their works has greatly broadened the availability of creative, original works which may be used with attribution as designated by their authors.
Copyright, Fair Use, and the TEACH Act
Much has been written about Copyright, Fair Use, and the TEACH Act as court cases interpret and reinterpret their applications. See the following web pages and documents (contents of these items do overlap) for more information:
This presentation by Open Oregon explains what open licensing is and why it's so important to the OER movement. (6:35 minutes)
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools.
From Open Educational Resources (OER) libguide by Heather Blicher
Can I Use That? is a handbook on how to teach students about Creative Commons.
See also the website Unlock Media Literacy
Creative Commons licenses help creators retain copyright while defining the terms on which others may use their work.
CC-BY Cable Green. From https://www.slideshare.net/cgreen/updated-keynote-slides-october-2014
Here are some examples of how to acknowledge the author of a Creative Commons work:
From Open Educational Resources (OER) libguide by Heather Blicher
The term "public domain" encompasses materials for which:
Public domain is different than "publicly accessible" or "free online." Read more about the public domain here.
From Open Educational Resources (OER) libguide by Heather Blicher