OER Commons Help Center

Each resource has one condition of use/copyright label. These labels help you quickly distinguish whether a resource can be changed or shared without further permission required. In addition, you can find the specific license or terms of permitted use for each resource.

Watch for the license symbols listed below. 

No Strings Attached

No restrictions on your remixing, redistributing or making derivative works. Give credit to the author, as required. Includes Public Domain, Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY), Creative Commons Public Domain, and any item that explicitly says no restrictions.

Public Domain

Works in the public domain are those whose exclusive intellectual property rights have expired, have been forfeited, or are inapplicable. This license allows you to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon public work, as long as you credit the original creator.

Attribution
CC BY

This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

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Remix and Share

Your remixing, redistributing, or making derivatives works comes with some restrictions, including how it is shared. Includes Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC BY-SA), Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Share Alike (CC BY-NC-SA), Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC), GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), WGBH Teachers' Domain remix.

Attribution-ShareAlike
CC BY-SA

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.

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Attribution-NonCommercial
CC BY-NC

This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

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This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.

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Share Only

Your redistributing comes with some restrictions. Do not remix or make derivative works. Includes Creative Commons No Derivatives (CC ND), WGBH Teachers' Domain share.

Attribution-NoDerivs
CC BY-ND

This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND

This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

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Read the Fine Print

If a lesson plan or activity is not clearly tagged or marked as being in the public domain or having an open license, it is not an open educational resource. In some instances a resource specifies:

Conditions of Use: Read the Fine Print

Click the View Resource button and look for any disclaimer and policies on the copyright and usage of those materials. Copyright and usage may vary from resource to resource, so it is necessary to review the specific policies of a resource.

*Source CC BY Creative Commons