Unit 2: Introducing the public domain and Creative Commons

Introduction

‘Built on copyright [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ’ was produced by Visual Thinkery for TIDE project, part of the UK-Aid-funded SPHEIR programme (spheir.org.uk), and is licensed CC BY 2.0

Creative Commons licences do not replace copyright; they are built on top of it.

In Unit 1 we explored copyright and the recent changes to Myanmar copyright law. We started to reflect on how these changes may impact our practice and what we need to consider when using material created by others.

In Unit 2 we are going to introduce public domain resources and find out a bit more about Creative Commons. Public domain resources are not subject to copyright, meaning that they can be shared, changed and used without seeking permission. Creative Commons is:

• a set of legal tools
• a non-profit organisation
• a global network and a movement.

As you might have guessed, Creative Commons has something to do with copyright! It is inspired by people’s willingness to share their creativity and knowledge. This willingness to share is enabled by a set of open copyright licences. Unit 3 will introduce us to a set of tools from Creative Commons to help us identify, share, change and use material created by others without violating copyright. We will explore how we can use these tools and how they could be useful to you later on in the course.

This unit has three sections:

• 2.1 The public domain
• 2.2 The story of Creative Commons
• 2.3 Creative Commons today

There are also additional resources if you are interested in learning more about any of the topics covered in this unit.