Conditions of Use

OER Commons encourages the use of the Creative Commons licenses to govern the use of OER, but does not require them. Creative Commons is a framework for institutions and authors to specify limitations and freedoms around use and reuse of resources, beyond traditional copyright.

OER Commons allows Content Providers to describe custom licensing agreements that cover their resources. Many resources may inherit legacy licensing and copyright arrangements. Although we seek to point to open and reusable content, OER Commons in no way promotes the use of materials outside the particular legal restrictions imposed by a resource author or provider.

A brief introduction from Creative Commons' Choosing a License is here:

Offering OER under a Creative Commons license "does not mean giving up your copyright. It means offering some of your rights to any member of the public but only on certain conditions. What conditions? You can find an overview of the Creative Commons licenses here."

All of the Creative Commons licenses require that a user or reuser of a resource "give attribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor."