Open up educational resources legally with new Jisc tools
Making your educational resources openly available is not always straightforward when there are multiple licences involved - but two new Jisc online wizards can help navigate the issues.
Amber Thomas, programme manager at Jisc, said, “These are really useful tools for aiding the remix of creative commons licensed content. The wizards are very simple to use, and we hope they will be useful to many people”.
The wizards navigate through the licence compatibility issues which arise when blending Creative Commons (CC) licensed resources into open educational resources.
They have been created for use by Jisc funded open educational resources projects, but it is anticipated that they will have to be applicable to other projects throughout the creative industries internationally.
Prodromos Tsiavos, England and Wales Project, Legal Project project lead, Creative Commons UK, said, "These tools allow users of the CC licences to make quick, easy and accurate decisions as to when and how to use multiple combinations of the CC licences. They reduce the complexity of copyright law and empower the end user by reducing the need for external advice when licensing copyrighted material. CCUK strongly supports this collaborative work and believes it will substantially contribute to the re-use, utilisation and proliferation of CC licensed content."
The toolkit will help people to understand the range of Creative Commons licences which are compatible with each other when they are blending Creative Commons licensed resources to create Open Educational Resources.
Jason Miles Campbell, service manager, Jisc Legal said, “These tools make tricky calculations easy when it comes to working out how the various Creative Commons licences work with each other. Web2rights, Creative Commons UK and Jisc Legal have pooled expertise to enable those passionate about releasing open educational resources to get on with creating imaginative, inspiring materials, rather than focussing on the legal intricacies of licensing.”
The wizards have been designed by the Jisc-funded OER IPR intellectual property rights support project team, which is led by Web2Rights Ltd, in collaboration with Jisc Legal and Creative Commons UK.
Naomi Korn, Director, Web2Rights Ltd, said, “I am delighted that we have produced a tool that so many people can use.”
Access the whole suite of IPR resources and tools designed for OER projects