5.1 Copyright and Creative Commons in Multimedia Projects

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COPYRIGHT AND CREATIVE COMMONS

Learning Outcomes

  1. Understand the appropriate guidelines for fair use and copyright law in the creation of educational multimedia.
  2. Find available resources for open Creative Commons materials.

Overview

In this lesson, we are briefly learning about copyright, fair use, and citing your multimedia sources so you can do this correctly in your multimedia project(s). As you might expect with anything related to law, copyright issues are not black and white, but murky and open for debate. However, there are some basic guidelines you can use to make informed choices about how to be ethical in your use of created works.

Definitions

First, you need to know a few definitions.

Copyrighted Works
Anything created in any form (e.g. text, music, video, image) is automatically protected under copyright law—whether the creator wanted it protected or not! Copyright law restricts others’ abilities to use, display, or share that creation.

 

Public Domain
Something that has passed out of copyright protection. For example, Mozart’s symphonies, which are old enough to no longer be copyrighted (although a particular performance of them might be!).

 

Creative Commons
The alternative to blanket copyright protection. If a creator wants to give more freedom to how people use his/her material, they can license it as creative commons.

 

OK, let’s learn a little bit more about these different types of media in this video:

Download Copyright Transcript

Learning More About Copyright and Fair Use

If you feel you are still uncertain about copyright and fair use, you can learn more by reading this chapter Links to an external site. from an open (creative commons-licensed) textbook by my colleague Royce Kimmons.

Learning More About Creative Commons

Unless you have prior experience with CC, I don’t expect the video above to have provided you enough explanation to be successful on the assignment. So learn more about creative commons licensing by:

  1. Viewing this video: Wanna Work Together? Links to an external site.
  2. Looking around Creative Commons Links to an external site. under the About and Licenses tabs.

How to Find CC Material

OK, You are now convinced CC is awesome, right? But where can you find CC material? Here is a list that will get you started (source: K-12 Technology Integration Links to an external site.):

Search Engines

  1. OER Commons Links to an external site.
  2. Creative Commons Search Links to an external site.
  3. Google Advanced Search Links to an external site. *
  4. Google Advanced Image Search Links to an external site.  Links to an external site.*
  5. Yahoo Image Search Links to an external site. **

* Be sure to set usage rights to “free to use share or modify”.

** Be sure to click the arrow in the top left and select “Labeled for Reuse” in the bottom left.

Text Content Providers

  1. Wikipedia  Links to an external site.—open encyclopedia
  2. Simple English Wikipedia Links to an external site. —simplified encyclopedia
  3. Project Gutenberg Links to an external site. —public domain texts
  4. Wiki Source  Links to an external site.—source materials
  5. Wiki Quote  Links to an external site.—quotations

Media Content Providers

  1. Wikimedia Commons Links to an external site. —open media
  2. Freeplaymusic.com Links to an external site.—cool website for fun music in all genres that you can use in multimedia projects. The licenses cost money for commercial use, but free for education.
  3. Digital Public Library of America Links to an external site. —public domain works
  4. LibriVox  Links to an external site.—public domain audio books
  5. Photo Pin Links to an external site. —open photos from Flickr
  6. Internet Archive Links to an external site. —public domain works
  7. U.S. Army  Links to an external site.—public domain images
  8. Flickr  Links to an external site.—creative commons images
  9. Vimeo  Links to an external site.—creative commons videos
  10. Creative Commons Music  Links to an external site.—various creative commons music sites
  11. Jamendo  Links to an external site.—creative commons music
  12. Animal Photos  Links to an external site.—animal photos
  13. Library of Congress  Links to an external site.—public domain works
  14. Internet Archive  Links to an external site.—public domain works
  15. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Digital Library  Links to an external site.—public domain works (mostly)

Open Courses

  1. Lumen Learning Links to an external site.
  2. Wikiversity Links to an external site.

How to Cite Others' Work

In this class you will make many projects that use material from others. You will be expected to cite their material correctly, just like you would be expected to cite a quote in a research paper. In general try to provide the following information if it’s available:

  • Title of the work
  • Author or creator
  • Source—where can we find it? Don’t say “available on Flickr, or Google” because that’s like saying you got a book from the library! Tell us where you got it specifically so we can find it ourselves!
  • License—what kind of license does it have, so we know whether we can reuse it too? Copyright? CC? Public Domain?

Typically you should put the citation either right below the material when you use it or in a reference section at the end. For example, if you create a movie, you might have some rolling credits at the end.

If you aren’t sure how to cite something, try using this cool tool  Links to an external site.from Dr. Kimmons in the IPT Department.

What Does This Mean for the Multimedia Assignment?

Be sure to use material appropriately and abide by their licenses/permissions. This will likely be easier if you find creative commons and public domain material for your project. Finally, be sure to cite your sources in your video! (can be done at any point).