The University of Leeds leaves it up to the the authors to decide on the most appropriate creative commons license for their Open Educational Resources. Choosing the license depends on how you want others to be able to use and build upon you work. Open educational resources are forged on the principles of sharing, remixing and adapting. Subsequently the following creative commons licenses are recommended: CC-BY, CC-BY-SA, CC-BY-NC or CC-BY-NC-SA.
The Tree of Knowledge Analogy: How Open Licensing Cultivates Growth and Innovation
Image created by DALL-E
Your work is forever yours. Imagine a fruit tree – you have cultivated and nurtured it, and at the top grows a juicy red apple, representing your work.
By applying a CC-BY licence, you have bore your fruits to the world! Your apple can be picked, shared, and even used to grow new fruits. A branch of innovation stems from your beautiful red apple, and from that branch emerges a new fruit—a pear. This pear has its own uniqueness and separation but comes from the same branch, deeply connected to your apple.
All new fruit that stems from your apple represents new works, and each of them must credit you and your apple as the source. The apple is shared, but you retain ownership; it can be used and built upon, but no one else can claim it as their own or change its fundamental nature. Your apple stays yours and remains the same.
Now, what if you apply a CC-BY-NC (Non-Commercial) license instead?
People can still pick, share, and grow new fruits—but they cannot sell them. Your apple remains available for all to enjoy, and new fruits may still sprout from its inspiration, but these fruits must never be sold for profit.
Why choose CC-BY?
CC BY allows anyone to use, share, modify as long as they give you credit both non-commercially and commercially.
One key issue highlighted is the ambiguity in defining “noncommercial” use, which can lead to confusion among creators and users regarding what constitutes permissible use under an NC license. This uncertainty can hinder the sharing and reuse of content, as potential users may be unsure whether their intended use qualifies as noncommercial. In contrast, licenses like CC BY (Attribution) are more straightforward, allowing for both commercial and noncommercial use as long as proper attribution is given, thereby promoting wider dissemination and reuse of the work. It is also worth considering that not all commercial undertakings are bad. For example, being able to adapt OERs could help a Global South business.
Could CC-BY work be sold unmodified?
Technically, yes. As long as the author is credited. However, this is unlikely. One reason this is unlikely is that most businesses want unique products. Simply reselling an unmodified CC BY book, article, or image is not usually profitable unless they add value, such as bundling, formatting improvements, or translations. Additionally, if your work is freely available online, most people would access it there instead of paying for it.
A publisher cannot claim copyright – the author and the University would have to be accredited. This means nobody has the legal right to change the author/s, copyright or the licensing. A company could not claim authorship or copyright.
There are some cases where businesses do sell CC BY content, for example a publisher copied several Wikipedia articles and collated and sold them as books. However, the majority of publishers usually do so by making additions and adaptations to content. Like the Tree of Knowledge analogy this would be a ‘pear’, accrediting your ‘apple’ and differentiated from your original work. However, this is usually not the case. It is far more common for researchers and educators to remix and adapt open educational resources than businesses. Your work can play an integral part in future open educational materials – advancing knowledge. Once open books are published, the Open Education Team will track future adaptations of your work, highlighting their impact.
If you have any concerns over the potential commercial use of your OER then the Creative Commons NonCommercial licence (CC-BY-NC) is a good option.
How does CC-BY-NC work?
The CC BY-NC license allows others to share, remix, and adapt your work, but not for commercial purposes. They must also give you credit as the original creator.
What are the advantages of using Share-alike (SA)?
Adding a share-alike clause (CC-BY-SA, CC-BY-NC-SA) means that anyone who adapts your work and releases a new output must release it under the same terms you did. For example, if you want your work to be used for non-commercial purposes then CC-BY-NC-SA would mean that future work built from your OER would have to also commit to the same licence. If you leave out the SA part, then you are leaving it up to the creators’ individual choice how to release new work.
Contributor Permissions
It is important to gain the permission of all authors and contributors to license their work. Please use this contributors form and check the permissions form for audio and video recordings.
What if a contributor wants to release their content under different terms?
In special circumstances where copyrighted material is required, permission to use the material must be sought from the creator. The Licensee may distribute the OER under an open licence (e.g., CC BY), but the Licensor’s works remains protected under copyright, subject to the following attribution. For example:
“Cover image © [Year] by [Licensor’s Name]. Used with permission. All rights reserved.” The Licensee shall not modify or redistribute the material independently of the OER. The Licensor acknowledges that the Licensee is not liable for any illegal unauthorised reproduction or misuse of the material by third parties who access it through the OER.”
Creative Commons License Chooser
Check out the Creative Commons License Chooser for further help.