Copyright Terms

Use this glossary to review some of the terminology used in this unit.

Browse the glossary using this index

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C

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a license that a copyright owner assigns to their work so that others may use it under the identified conditions. It's basically setting the permissions to allow re-use.

Here is a guide to the various types of Creative Commons licenses. Handout for how to attribute CC licensed material.

F

Fair Use

Under Fair Use guidelines people have the legal right to use copyrighted material if it meets certain guidelines.

If your use of copyrighted material falls under this then you do not need permission to use something from the copyright holder.

These conditions are:

the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

the nature of the copyrighted work;

the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

In some situations Fair Use might even include Parody or Satire.

O

Open Source

Usually referring to software but can be any type of recipe or program or design, Open Source is freely distributed and accessible. Users downloading open source software do not require permission to install and use.

P

Public Domain

The copyright on the work has expired and permission for reuse is no longer required.