Copyright and Creative Commons

Creative Commons Links to an external site. (CC) is an American non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses, known as Creative Commons licenses Links to an external site., free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.

An easy-to-understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, explains the specifics of each Creative Commons license. Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright but are based upon it. They replace individual negotiations for specific rights between copyright owner (licensor) and licensee, which are necessary under an "all rights reserved" copyright management, with a "some rights reserved" management employing standardized licenses for re-use cases where no commercial compensation is sought by the copyright owner. The result is an agile, low-overhead, and low-cost copyright-management regime, benefiting both copyright owners and licensees.

The Covid-19 Oral History Project uses a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license as its default license for oral history interviews. The Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)  license allows interviewees to retain copyright of their oral history but grants permissions to The COVID-19 Oral History Project, researchers, and the public-at-large to distribute, remix, and adapt the oral history for non-commercial purposes. The terms of this license are as follows:

“This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only. If others modify or adapt the material, they must license the modified material under identical terms.”

For those individuals who do not wish to use a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, the project offers an alternative option. This second license grants permissions to the research and archiving teams associated with The COVID-19 Oral History Project, the Journal of the Plague Year: A Covid-19 Archive, and Indiana University to distribute, remix, and adapt the oral history and associated materials (this includes providing access to researchers and the public-at-large through online databases and exhibitions). It also grants researchers the right to use the materials under the terms of fair use (for example, in articles and books). The terms of this license are as follows:

“The COVID-19 Oral History Project; the Journal of the Plague Year: A Covid-19 Archive; and The Trustees of Indiana University (“IU”), acting through its agents, employees, or representatives has an unlimited right to reproduce, use, exhibit, display, perform, broadcast, create derivative works from, and distribute the oral history materials in any manner or media now existing or hereafter developed, in perpetuity, throughout the world. I agree that the oral history materials may be used by The COVID-19 Oral History Project; the Journal of the Plague Year: A Covid-19 Archive; and IU, including its assigns and transferees, for any purpose, including but not limited to, marketing, advertising, publicity, or other promotional purposes. I agree that IU will have final editorial authority over the use of the oral history materials, and I waive any right to inspect or approve of any future use of the oral history materials. Moreover, I agree that the public has the right to use the materials under the terms of fair use (U.S. copyright law Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act).”