Cassava (2).jpg



assessment

Quick copyright quiz

Indicate whether the following statements are true or false:

  • You must register your copyright, otherwise published materials are copyright free.
    • True
      • No. The default position is that all materials are copyrighted as ‘all rights reserved’. You should generally assume that all materials are protected by copyright.
    • False
      • Correct. There is no requirement to ‘register’ copyright. The default position is ‘all rights reserved’ copyright. You should generally assume that all materials are protected by copyright.
  • You are free to copy and re-use content which can be openly accessed on the web for educational purposes.
    • True
      • No. The fact that a resource is accessible on a public website does not necessarily change the copyright protections.
    • False
      • Correct. Public access on a website does not necessarily grant permissions for re-using and copying materials for educational purposes.
  • You will not infringe copyright as long as you don’t make money from the use of the materials.
    • True
      • Incorrect. Generally speaking, copyright protections apply whether or not any money changes hands.
    • False
      • Correct. The re-use of all rights reserved materials without permission of the copyright holder for non-profit purposes would constitute a breach of copyright.
  • If there is no copyright symbol (©) or notice, then you can assume the work is copyright free.
    • True
      • Incorrect. The absence of a copyright notice does not mean that the author has abandoned copyright. You should assume the default position of ‘all rights reserved’ copyright.
    • False
      • Correct. The default position (when the author has not otherwise indicated copyright) is that the work is copyrighted as ‘all rights reserved’. You should generally assume that all works are protected by copyright.
  • If the materials use a Creative Commons licence, you are free to re-use, adapt, mix and modify these resources for educational purposes.
    • True
      • Incorrect. The permissions and restrictions associated with a Creative Commons licence depend on the type of Creative Commons licence used. For example, the No-Derivatives restriction does not allow for modifications.
    • False
      • Yes. You must confirm which type of Creative Commons licence is used in order to determine the permissions for re-use.

How did you do with the copyright taster quiz? Any surprises? Share a comment by posting on WENotes below:

You must be logged in to post to WEnotes.

Note: Your comment will be displayed in the course feed.

The challenge of finding openly licensed resources

As you will have seen in the copyright quiz above, the majority of content you find on the Internet is automatically protected by copyright. So we can’t just make copies of resources we find online even if it is for educational purposes. Consequently, when searching for content online, we must develop our search skills to filter for resources that are openly licensed. Modern internet search engines provide functionality to help identify openly licensed content. However, even if an advanced search for openly licensed content lists a number of resources, we must always go to the original source of the material to verify that it has an open licence, or that it has been clearly dedicated to the public domain (for example, using the CC0 mark (Pronounced ‘CC Zero’).

Let’s assume a teacher is looking for images of Cassava that they would like to modify for a worksheet on the economics of local food production.

Using internet search engines

As well as finding resources on dedicated image sites like Flickr, it is also possible to search for images using internet search engines to filter for openly licensed content. Sometimes, if you are unsuccessful in finding a suitable image resource on a dedicated image site, a wider internet search may help you find what you are looking for.

We will explore two options.

Activity Search Engine
Activity 1 DuckDuckGo
Activity 2 Google

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a search engine that protects a user’s privacy and shows all searchers the same results for a given search term, rather than using algorithms developed from personal data that provide different results for each user.

activity

Internet search using DuckDuckGo

Purpose: To gain practical experience using filters for licences on DuckDuckGo

  1. Go to: https://duckduckgo.com/
  2. Type ‘Cassava’ into the search field, and click ‘Enter’. (This produces results for web pages on ‘Cassava’)
  3. Click on the ‘Images’ link at the top of the page. (This will generate results for images only, but will also include images which are all rights reserved)
  4. Click on the ‘All licences’ drop-down menu at the top of the page
  5. Select an option to find images taking into account the restrictions each option provides. For example, “All Creative Commons” will include Create Commons images with No-Derivatives and Non-Commercial which may not be appropriate for your OER re-mix project.
  6. Click on an image you like, then click on the link that will take you to the original source where the image comes from. Scan the page to check that the image is openly licensed. The image page itself may contain the Copyright licence, but sometimes you need to go to the general ‘Terms of Service’ or ‘Copyright’ links on the website to see the copyright licence used. If you can’t find a clear open license statement, you must assume that the image is all rights reserved.
  7. Remember to save the source URL of the image because you will need this later when you attribute the image in your work.

Google Search

Google Search, or Google for short, is an internet search engine provided by Google. The order of search results is in part determined by a ranking system (popularity of pages). The search algorithm personalises results based on the user’s search history. Consequently, two people using an identical search term will invariably generate different search results[1].

activity

Internet search using Google

Purpose: To gain practical experience using filters for licences on Google Search

  1. Go to: https://www.google.com/
  2. Type ‘Cassava’ into the search field, and click ‘Enter’. (This produces results for web pages on ‘Cassava’)
  3. Click on the ‘Images’ link at the top of the page. (Did you get different results from your previous search? How do your results compare with a colleague’s results?)
  4. Click on the ‘Tools’ link at the top of the page to reveal the Tools sub-menu
  5. Select the ‘Usage rights’ sub-menu option
  6. Select the ‘Creative Commons licences’ option
  7. Click on an image you like, then click on the link that will take you to the original source where the image comes from. Scan the page to check that the image is openly licensed. The image page itself may contain the open licence, but sometimes you need to go to the general ‘Terms of Service’ or ‘Copyright’ links on the website to see the copyright license used. If you can’t find a clear open licence statement, you must assume that the image is all rights reserved.
  8. Remember to save the source URL of the image because you will need this later when you attribute the image in your work.

Associating Creative Commons licences with search filter labels

Internet search engines use generic labels to refer to collections of Creative Commons licences. When making OER, you must think about your re-use context and the compatibility of different licence types. In summary, you need to know what types of licences you are looking for.

assessment

Quiz on filter labels

In this quiz, you must select all the Creative Commons licences you would expect to find under each generic label.

  • Which of the following licences will be associated with the label: “Free to Share and Use” (After making you choices, check all options to see which ones are incorrect).
    • CC BY
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-SA
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-ND
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-NC
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-NC-SA
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-NC-ND
      • Correct.
  • Which of the following licences will be associated with the label: “Free to Share and Use Commercially” (After making you choices, check all options to see which ones are incorrect)
    • CC BY
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-SA
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-ND
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-NC
      • Incorrect The Non-Commercial (NC) does not allow commercial use.
    • CC BY-NC-SA
      • Incorrect The Non-Commercial (NC) does not allow commercial use.
    • CC BY-NC-ND
      • Incorrect The Non-Commercial (NC) does not allow commercial use.
  • Which of the following licences will be associated with the label: “Free to Modify, Share and Use
    • CC BY
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-SA
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-ND
      • Incorrect The No-Derivatives (ND) restriction does not allow modifications.
    • CC BY-NC
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-NC-SA
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-NC-ND
      • Incorrect The No-Derivatives (ND) restriction does not allow modifications.
  • Which of the following licences will be associated with the label: “Free to Modify, Share and Use Commercially
    • CC BY
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-SA
      • Correct.
    • CC BY-ND
      • Incorrect The No-Derivatives (ND) restriction does not allow modifications.
    • CC BY-NC
      • Incorrect The Non-Commercial (NC) does not allow commercial use.
    • CC BY-NC-SA
      • Incorrect The Non-Commercial (NC) does not allow commercial use.
    • CC BY-NC-ND
      • Incorrect The No-Derivatives (ND) restriction does not allow modifications.

References

  1. Statt, N. 2018 Google personalizes search results even when you’re logged out, new study claims. The Verge.