The intellectual property law that protects a creative work from theft or mis-use. It is the creator's legal claim to the works that he or she creates. By default, any original creative work is copyrighted to the creator when that work is expressed in a tangible form.
Bucks County Community College has its own Copyright Policy to ensure that all members of the college community adhere to the copyright laws of the United States.
When you create something, you already have the copyright, but you can add the Creative Commons license layer to that work. YOU ARE NOT giving up your copyright, but specifically modifying your copyright to indicate how that content can be used by others.
Yes, there are different licenses: and you can read about the rationale of each license on the Creative Commons website.
Frequently Asked Questions about Creative Commons Licenses
Any content about Creative Commons and its licensing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
It's a non profit organization that enables the sharing of knowledge and creative works. It unlocks the full potential of the internet to drive a new era of development, growth and productivity for open education.
Use the Search Tool on the Creative Commons website to search for OER materials.
Gives permission in advance for others to reuse your work.
3 Steps to Openly Licensing your work
Creative Commons updated their search engine. You should check it out!
Once you are familiar with the CC logos and buttons you will more easily recognize an open resource and know immediately that you can use it. Click on each type of license below to see what you can or cannot do with the license:
Even if you are setting out to search for open materials, it is likely that you will come across materials that you will question if the content is open or not. As you know, it is the responsibility of every member of the College to follow copyright laws. There are a few guides that help you to determine Fair Use, when copyright has expired and the content/works is considered Public Domain. Please review the following guides below:
Here is a photo. Following is an example of how people might attribute it.
"A great day for geese" by Ann Fisher is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The above attribution is an ideal attribution. It contains the:
Title: “A great day for geese”
Author: “Ann Fisher” – linked to her profile page
Image Source: “A great day for geese” – linked to original Flickr page
License: “CC BY 2.0” – linked to license deed
One particular question commonly asked is How do I properly attribute material offered under a Creative Commons license?
Should you choose to exercise any of the 5R permissions granted you under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, you must be in accordance with CC's best practices for attribution.