In Module 2, we discussed that in order for an item to be eligible to be an open educational resource it has to be openly licensed or in the public domain. Through module 3 to module 5, we learned what it means to be released with an open license and how to apply it to your work. In this module, we will discuss public domain.
A public domain work is a creative work that is not protected by copyright, which means it’s free for you to use without permission. Works in the public domain are those whose intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable.
Examples include the works of Shakespeare and Beethoven, The King James Bible, most of the early silent films, the formulae of Newtonian physics, and the patents on powered flight (this paragraph is from Wikipedia, Public domain, CC BY-SA).
Copyright has expired for all works published in the United States before 1923. In other words, if the work was published in the U.S. before January 1, 1923, you are free to use it in the U.S. without permission.
Thousands of works published in the United States before 1964 fell into the public domain because the copyright was not renewed in time under the law in effect then. If a work was first published before 1964, the owner had to file a renewal with the Copyright Office during the 28th year after publication. No renewal meant a loss of copyright.
Sometimes an author deliberately chooses not to protect a work and dedicates the work to the public. If, upon viewing a work, you see words such as, “This work is dedicated to the public domain,” then it is free for you to use. This type of dedication is rare, and unless there is express authorization placing the work in the public domain, do not assume that the work is free to use.
Short Phrases. Phrases such as, “Show me the money” or, “Beam me up” are not protected under copyright law. Short phrases, names, titles, or small groups of words are considered common idioms of the English language and are free for anyone to use.
Facts and Theories. For example, the fact that a comet will pass by the Earth in 2027—is not protected by copyright. If a scientist discovered this fact, anyone would be free to use it without asking for permission from the scientist.
U.S. Government Works. In the U.S., any work created by a federal government employee or officer is in the public domain, provided that the work was created in that person’s official capacity. Keep in mind that this rule applies only to works created by federal employees and not to works created by state or local government employees.
Above content is from The Public Domain by Rich Stim, Copyright & Fair Use, Standford University Libraries, CC BY-NC.
1. Locate the work’s publication date and see if it is published before 1923. If it is, the work is automatically placed in public domain. Some examples in this category include:
(Examples from Wikihow, How to Find Public Domain Materials, CC-BY)
2.Research books that were published between 1923 and Jan 1, 1964. 90% of books during this period are not copyrighted, since their copyright holders failed to extend their copyright. Review the copyright renewal database for details.
3. Determine whether the work is eligible for public domain status. If it is a work of the US government and other government agencies, the work may be considered to be in public domain. Some good examples:
(Examples from Wikihow, How to Find Public Domain Materials, CC-BY).
4. If none of the above cases are met, you will have to do research to determine whether the work in question is in public domain. Please use the guidelines found in Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States, developed by Peter Hirtle at Cornell University. This provides an extensive guide for determining if a work is in the public domain.
5. Keep in mind that there are a number of websites that purport to curate openly licensed images and content yet aren’t legitimate. It is wise to approach the site just as you would individual works. Ask yourself if the site covers all the considerations we’ve mentioned above for the works it shares.
It is important to understand the difference between public domain and open license (such as Creative Commons licenses). They both grant free access to the materials, but the scope and nature are completely different.
Open licensing does recognize a clear ownership of an intellectual property, whereas the intent of public domain is for the copyright holder to waive copyright ownership in the work. Therefore, users are required to attribute the work to the original authors when using openly licensed materials.
In a way, public domain is the purest form of open/free, since no one owns or controls the material in any way (this sentence is from Public Domain, CC-BY).
Please see the table below to see the difference between public domain and open license.
| Public Domain | Open License |
|---|---|
| Copyright ownership is waived. | Copyright ownership retained. |
| Author gives away rights to the public to reproduce and distribute creative work. | Author grants broad rights to the public to reproduce and distribute creative work. |
If you want more in-depth discussion about public domain, please read Public Domain by James Boyle. And you suspected right– this book is CC licensed (CC-BY-NC-SA), meaning that you can download the entire book for free.
Please also see the CC licensed comic created to simplify the concept and make it fun at http://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/zoomcomic.html
Please see the table below to see the difference between open license, public domain and all rights reserved copyright.
| Public Domain | Open License | All Rights Reserved Copyright |
|---|---|---|
| Copyright ownership waived. | Copyright ownership retained. | Copyright ownership retained. |
| Author gives away rights to the public. | Author grants rights in advance. | Author does NOT grant rights to the public. |
| It is not mine. I give up my right as an author. You don’t even have to cite me although I would appreciate it. | It is mine but I do allow you to take my material. No need to ask for my permission to use it because it is already granted -just be sure to make proper attribution to me. | It is mine. I do NOT allow you to take this material and repurpose it. You definitely need to ask for my permission to use it. |
| Most open. | Most closed. |
The content in the table above is also available as an infographic.
Are you interested in sharing your material? Do you have an engaging course activity, image, assessment item, video, or a whole course that might be beneficial to your fellow Washington faculty?
Then consider releasing them as OER. Below are the steps we recommend:
Decide on the terms of use. Do you wish to release your work under Creative Commons license or in the public domain? Please make sure to review the difference between these two copyright terms:
Please see “What is the difference between public domain and open license?” in Module 7 for details.
Be sure that the work is eligible to be shared. In order to release your work with a CC license or in the public domain, your work should be cleared from all copyright issues. To do so, your work should be one or a combination of the following types:
Note: For any third party materials, whether openly licensed or copyrighted, those materials need to be attributed as not governed by the CC license you chose for your work, but under different terms and by different authors).
If you must use any items that are copyrighted with all-rights reserved, please be sure to obtain the permission letters from the authors. Please find a sample permission request email.
A sample letter to ask for permission to use the work:
Hello Dr. Dumbledore,
I am a faculty member with the ____ project. The purpose of this project is to design openly licensed Science and Technology courses that can be taught face-to-face, hybrid and/or online. These courses will be freely available on the internet for anyone to copy, modify and use. One of the purposes of this project is to offer educational resources to regions where formal educational opportunities are scarce or expensive.
I am creating a course entitled “Advanced Potion” and I would like to use a post from your blog entitled “Why polyjuice potion?” from February 2005.
I am seeking your permission to distribute this material as part of our course. You will maintain your copyright but will be giving us permission to distribute this material for reuse as part of the teaching of this course. We will mostly likely copy the text of your post into a Google document and attribute you. A full citation for the work will accompany it, as will a statement of copyright ownership.
Please contact me at xxxx@hogwarts.edu or by telephone at 253-xxx-xxxx with information about this request. Thank you for your time and attention.
Regards,Your name
Creative Commons licenses are non-revocable. This means that you cannot stop someone, who has obtained your work under a Creative Commons license, from using the work according to that license. You can stop offering your work under a Creative Commons license at any time you wish; but this will not affect the rights associated with any copies of your work already in circulation under a Creative Commons license. So you need to think carefully when choosing a Creative Commons license to make sure that you are happy with people being able to use your work consistent with the terms of the license, even if you later stop distributing your work (text from Considerations for licensors and licensees by Creative Commons, CC-BY.
To learn more about basic conditions that you should think about before you apply a Creative Commons license to your work, please visit the website CC Wiki: Considerations for licensors and licensees.
Consider Flickr or Wikimedia Commons. As you upload your image to these repositories, you will see the option to select the terms of use. Here are instructions, if you need help in uploading an image to your Flickr account and marking it with a CC license.
Consider YouTube or Vimeo. Here are instructions, If you need help in uploading a video to your YouTube account and mark it with a CC license.
Consider Canvas Commons if you have an online/hybrid course in Canvas that you would like to openly license and share. Anyone with Canvas account in the world will be able to access your materials and easily import the content back to their course shell.
Below are instructions, if you need help sharing your courses in Canvas Commons:
You can also choose a web storage space that allows easy and free access, such as Drop-box or Google drive. If you choose a web storage space, make sure to (1) manually mark your work as a CC licensed or the public domain work by placing the copyright notice somewhere visible and (2) make the link accessible by public.
