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Creative Commons: A Friendlier Version of Copyright?

A brief guide outlining the key historical events leading up to the launch of Creative Commons and the state of Creative Commons today.

Open Access & Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Access

Open Access (OA) is a movement that seeks to provide free and open access to scientific and scholarly research through the use of digital tools and technologies. Unlike the longstanding "closed" method of publishing and accessing scholarly materials through expensive vendors after a laboriously slow process of peer review and copyright contract negotiations, OA seeks to make scholarly and scientific research available quickly and freely while still maintaining academic integrity through a modified and open form of peer review.

OA advocates point out the disconnect between how a majority of research is currently funded (usually through funds supported by taxpayers) and how research is currently accessed (via an expensive online subscription in which a third party vendor has gained copyright from the original researchers). Under the traditional publishing model, researchers sharing their findings in reputable scholarly journals typically surrender their copyright to the publisher, and the publisher, fully aware of the market value of such information, continues to drive prices upward.

The Open Access movement is, therefore, very important to students and faculty alike. 

Students can benefit from OA by having free access to quality scientific and scholarly research, thereby significantly lowering the cost inherent in achieving a quality education.

Faculty can benefit from OA literature in that they can use and reuse valuable research thereby speeding up collaborative efforts in scientific research and advancing the scholarly record in their field.

Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) are resources that are primarily born digital (created with current digital technologies) and are therefore easy to distribute rapidly and with minimal cost -- often referred to as near zero cost.

OER's allow for, with the use of Creative Commons licensing, the sharing and disseminating of ideas on an unprecedented scale. As defined by David Wiley, resources that allow students and faculty alike to engage in the 5R Activities are truly considered Open Educational Resources. The 5Rs include:

  1. Retain – permission to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
  2. Reuse – permission to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
  3. Revise – permission to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
  4. Remix – permission to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
  5. Redistribute – permission to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of to a friend)

As such, the relationship between Open Access and OER's is highly interwoven. By utilizing Creative Commons licensing, authors and creators have the potential to make revolutionary strides and to democratize the fields of education and research across the globe -- which will be of immense benefit to both students and faculty alike. In many ways, the Open Access movement and OER's provide students and faculty a wider range of options to access, distribute, and reuse information in an affordable manner.

Why OER?