Implications of the NonCommercial (NC) restriction for educational content licensed under a Creative Commons (cc) Licence
Date
2006
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Southern African Journal of Information and Communication (SAJIC), The Edge Institute / Research ICT Africa, Braamfontein, ZA
Abstract
Individuals and institutions are increasingly making content available under Creative Commons (cc) licences. Creative
Commons licences are heterogeneous, even though common discourse often assumes homogeneity. A cc licence that is analogous
to the free software licence of the GNU General Public Licence is the cc Attribution-ShareAlike (BY-SA) licence. An informal survey
of content on the Internet indicates that less than 24% of educational content uses this licence. Seventy-three per cent of content
surveyed uses a cc NonCommercial (NC) restriction on use. Casual conversations with authors who use cc licences indicate that
most do not understand the implications of choosing a particular licence. A set of principle-based guidelines for choosing cc
licences for educational content is suggested.
Description
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Journal Article (peer-reviewed)
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Text
Keywords
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, COPYRIGHT, LICENSING, ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING, ACCESS TO INFORMATION, SOUTH AFRICA