Open Chemistry Education Resources : Copyright, Fair Use, and Licensing

This guide contains information about open educational resources for chemistry.

Using copyrighted educational materials

The US Copyright Office published a circular explaining some of the most important legislative provisions and other documents dealing with reproduction for educational purposes.

In short, copyrights protect works of authorship, such as writings, music, and works of art that have been tangibly expressed. In general, permission must be granted for the use of copyrighted works, unless

You are the copyright owner,
The university library licenses the material on your behalf,
A Creative Commons license grants permission,
You have an implied license (e.g., linking to, and looking at, online materials is acceptable), or
The work is in the public domain.

In addition, some educational uses of copyrighted materials are protected by "Fair Use," which allows the use of the work without obtaining permission from the copyright owner. Copyright and Fair Use are described in the boxes below.

The American Library Association created the Copyright Genie for assistance in determining the copyright status of a work.

The University of Minnesota Libraries created a helpful decision map to guide use determinations.

The Association of Research Libraries created a table describing what you can do with copyrighted materials.

See https://www.library.wisc.edu/help/copyright/ for information on UW-Madison's copyright policies.

Copyright Definitions

Copyright is "a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for 'original works of authorship,' including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations. 'Copyright' literally means the right to copy but has come to mean that body of exclusive rights granted by law to copyright owners for protection of their work. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, title, principle, or discovery. Similarly, names, titles, short phrases, slogans, familiar symbols, mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, coloring, and listings of contents or ingredients are not subject to copyright."

§ 106 . Exclusive rights in copyrighted works
Subject to sections 107 through 122, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
(1) to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords;
(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;
(3) to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;
(5) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, to display the copyrighted work publicly; and
(6) in the case of sound recordings, to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

Fair Use

Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use.

§ 107 . Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Creating Commons Licensing

A Creative Commons (CC) license is a public copyright license that enables the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. The license allows the user to give others permission to share, use, and build upon their work. Creative Commons uses four terms in defining licenses:
BY: Attribution
SA: Share alike
NC: Non-commercial
ND: No derivatives

There are six main types of licenses: CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, CC BY-NC-SA, and CC BY-NC-ND.

CC BY: This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon a work, even commercially, as long as they credit the original creator. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered and is recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

CC BY-SA: This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work, even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit the original creator and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.

CC BY-ND: This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the original creator.

CC BY-NC: This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work non-commercially. Although their new works must also acknowledge the original creator and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

CC BY-NC-SA: This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work non-commercially, as long as they credit the original creator and license their new creations under the identical terms.

CC BY-NC-ND: This license is the most restrictive of the six main licenses, only allowing others to download works and share them with others as long as they credit the original creators. Materials cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.

What is the purpose of copyright?

Justice Sandra Day O'Conner, writing the majority opinion on Feist Publications, Inc v. Rural Telephone Service Company (499 U.S. 340, 349-50 (1991), stated, “the primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors, but [t]o promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts. To this end, copyright assures authors the right to their original expression, but encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work. This result is neither unfair nor unfortunate. It is the means by which copyright advances the progress of sciences and art.