The American Library Association (ALA) and Creative Commons have collaborated on a new publication, ‘Creative Commons for Educators and Librarians,’ available in print at the ALA store and downloaded from the Creative Commons website. This book offers a clear and comprehensive background on copyright law, open licensing and open advocacy. This book can be read on its own or as a companion to the Creative Commons certificate course.
Please note, this book covers US Copyright Law and not Australian Law. Please be mindful of this particularly when reading ‘Chapter 2: Copyright Law’. However, the ‘fair use’ doctrine will only apply to the US context. Australia’s Copyright Act contains specific educational use exceptions and a statutory licence scheme for educational use. While most of the open licensing information in the book is relevant to both jurisdictions, copyright law is enacted and enforced through national laws and there is still quite a bit of variance from country to country. If you have any copyright questions or concerns please contact the NCU in the first instance at smartcopying@det.nsw.edu.au.
It is available to print from the link below: