We have been presented with a bimodal thinking when it comes to licensing and access to resources. These are copyrighted and public domain works at each extreme, but Larry Lessig founded Creative Commons licensing to allow people to retain copyright, while making customized choices about how their work can be shared and used. It has been transformative in post-secondary, but unfortunately, there isn’t enough awareness or advocacy at the K12 level, which means most of society isn’t aware. This is changing, however, as government is putting more requirements around licensing of publicly funded work.
Creative Commons website – Please visit to learn more about licensing and how to license your own work.
Search function on the CC Website to help find CC-licensed material – choose images for your website to add as featured images for posts, for example, or for your header image, but make sure they are not copyrighted. Google’s reverse image search will make it easy for copyright holders to find where their works are used on the Internet.
Fair Dealing (Canada) or Fair Use (USA) is not Creative Commons but exceptions for use of copyrighted material. See
Some resources:
- Steps to learn more by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who defends digital privacy, free speech, and innovation.
- A resource from the Council of Ministers of Education Canada that does not make a single mention of Creative Commons (?!): Copyright Matters (pdf)
- BCcampus (mandated to support Post-Secondary in BC) has an Open Textbooks Initiative
- CC’s Open Education Platform
- Review the Open Educational Resources Tutorial from OER Africa
Community conversations:
Follow: @lessig @creativecommons
Explore: #OER #OEP #OpenEducation #Indieweb #openaccess #opendata #openpedagogy #opened #openresearch #GoOpen
I’ve decided to make my teaching materials open: https://t.co/NoU7PBvMX9 The materials for the first 2 lectures/labs of my undergrad class, “Treatment of Psychological Data” at #UofT are up, and I’ll add new materials each week! I’m using @creativecommons, so feel free to share!
— Elizabeth Page-Gould (@page_gould) January 12, 2018
An example of a Greater Victoria artist who was sued over copyright infringement when Flickr had so many CC-licensed photos she could have adapted for her art:
Real life example of #copyright infringement #ELA and #arted teachers could use in the classroom. #digitalart #DigitalCitizenship #digitalliteracy #edci336 https://t.co/sr2wiq3m9Y
— Olivia Robinson (@LivsRobin) April 4, 2018
And don’t just credit your own images, but self-attribute. Make consent visible.
#edci336 #tiegrad #tielab MT @gitaneee: Happy Halloween from #creativecommons Police! Don’t just use it; give credit! pic.twitter.com/dK8bdvHhRD
— Dr. Valerie Irvine [she/her] (@_valeriei) October 31, 2014
Copyright basics – Recap
● Copyright applies to all works created
● Copyright is assumed automatically and immediately
● Fair dealing allows for the use of some copyright protected works with limitations
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