OER & Textbook Affordability at GCC

When an author, speaker, or artist creates a work, such as a book, essay, film, sculpture, sound recording, or painting, they have certain exclusive rights to that work, including making copies, selling the work, giving it away for free, and licensing copies of the work for others to sell. This is known as copyright.

Purpose of copyright

Copyrights and patents are provided for in Article I Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, and their purpose is “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” Copyright is meant to encourage creativity and productivity—creators can profit from their work, and so have the incentive to create things and share them with others.

How to obtain copyright

In the U.S. under current copyright law, creators own the copyright to their work as soon as they put it in a fixed and tangible form (i.e. draw it on their computer, write it on paper, film it, etc.)—they do not have to register with the U.S. Copyright Office in order to own copyright to their works. However, creators can still register their copyright with the Copyright Office if they would like to, and works must be registered with the Copyright Office in order to defend their copyright in federal court.

Length of copyright

Copyright doesn’t last forever. For works created now, copyright lasts for the duration of the author’s life plus an additional 70 years. If the work is considered work for hire (for example, a graphic designer that designs brochures for a company), the work will have a copyright term of 95 years from the date of publication or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever expires first.

Note that copyright didn’t always last as long as as it does now. The Copyright Act of 1790 allowed authors a fourteen-year copyright term for each work with the option for an additional fourteen-year extension. As the Association of Research Libraries writes, “The law was meant to provide an incentive to authors, artists, and scientists to create original works by providing creators with a monopoly. At the same time, the monopoly was limited in order to stimulate creativity and the advancement of ‘science and the useful arts’ through wide public access to works in the ‘public domain.’”

Copyright law is designed as a balance between 1) giving creators enough of an incentive to create works and 2) allowing others access to freely share and build off the works.

Copyright readings

• Copyright Law of the United States and Related Laws Contained in Tıtle 17 of the United States Code, U.S. Copyright Office
• Copyright Timeline: A History of Copyright in the United States, Association of Research Libraries
• Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States, Cornell University Library

After copyright ends, the works enter the public domain, and are collectively owned by all of us. As of January 1, {{CURRENT_YEAR}}, all works published in {{PRIOR_YEAR}} and prior are in the public domain.

This means we can all make copies, sell versions, make our own adaptations (like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), and do anything else we want to do with works in the public domain. Authors can also choose to release their works directly into the public domain, foregoing their copyright and allowing immediate public ownership of their creation.

Changes in public domain

Since copyright law has undergone many revisions since the Copyright Act of 1790, many additional works published after {{PRIOR_YEAR}} are also in the public domain. However, it can be a little complicated to determine which works published after {{PRIOR_YEAR}} are in the public domain. See Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States for details.

U.S. government works

Works created by employees of the U.S. federal government in an official capacity are automatically in the public domain. This includes images from NASA, the text of all laws and court decisions, presidential speeches, photographs taken by military personnel, and many more. There are exceptions to this, including departmental logos. Check out USA.gov's Learn About Copyrighted Government Works for more details.

How can legal copies be made of copyrighted works? Let’s take the case of a book.

• An author can contract with a publisher to print and sell their book to individuals and organizations (such as libraries).
  • This book can also be made into a digital file and sold, rented, or added to a subscription collection (like a library database).
• A publisher can contract with an author to excerpt a chapter from their book and include it in a reader, and then that reader can be sold or rented to users.
• The rights to copy and distribute a chapter from the book can also be paid for through an organization like the Copyright Clearance Center. 
• The author can give permission to make copies of their book without paying for the copies. They can do this in two ways:
  • give written permission directly to an individual or organization, or
  • include a public license on their book, like a Creative Commons license, that gives any user blanket permission to make free copies of their book. This licensing is what makes OER possible.
• The user determines that copying without permission is fair use.

Creators can choose to share their works under an open license. The most widely used licenses are Creative Commons.

Creative Commons has defined six licenses for your use, illustrated below. Read About CC Licenses to learn more.

“Creative Commons License Spectrum” by Shaddim (CC BY)

Creators do not have to apply for or register open licenses. All you need to do is mark your work with a license.

Choose a license

• Choose a Creative Commons License
• Considerations for licensors and licensees

There are several limitations or exceptions to the exclusive rights of copyright holders, and one of those limitations is fair use. Fair use is defined in Section 107 of the Copyright Act as follows:

As you can see, fair use is designed to support dissemination and creation of information by allowing selections from copyrighted work to be used for free in some situations, including for educational purposes. However, the use must be weighed under the four criteria defined in the law in order to be considered fair. For most fair use determinations, there will be criteria that weigh towards fair use and criteria that weigh against it. Though an individual may be able to make a considered case that a certain use is fair, only a judge can determine fair use.

For an in-depth framework you can use to weigh each criterion, check out UMN Libraries’ Thinking Through Fair Use Checklist.

Also, be aware that the District has created guidelines for use of copyrighted materials. Please refer to the following for more information:

• 3750 Board Policy, USE OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS
• 3750 Administrative Regulation, USE OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS

The owner of a copyrighted work can sue individuals or organizations who allegedly violated the terms of the copyright. If the court finds that copyright was violated, the copyright owner can be awarded a restraining order or injunction to prevent further copyright violations by the individual or organization, as well as money damages and even attorney fees (i.e. the cost of suing you for copyright violation).

"Best Practices for Teaching with Copyrighted Resources" adapted from Copyright Resources from Portland Community College (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license).