Creative commons licenses allow you to use a work more freely than US copyright law allows by default. There are a range of licenses to choose from, and your rights to use a work will depend on which CC license the author has chosen. You will have to look carefully at the terms of the license to be sure you can take advantage of the work it covers. For example, most licenses require attribution, and some bar use for commercial purposes. Some licenses require that any new work that incorporates the existing work be made available under an equally open license—so a compilation of short stories that includes a CC-BY-SA story would have to also be released under a CC-BY-SA license. Open licenses are a way for authors to encourage reuse of their works, so take advantage!
- Written by Brandon Butler
Open Educational Resources (OER) are resources for teaching that are made available under open licenses so that teachers, students, and schools can use and modify them freely. Many organizations, including the federal and state governments, are funding and distributing OER materials. The links below will help you find OERs and other open resources you can use in your projects.
- Written by Brandon Butler
