Learning materials
Why the licenses in the learning marketplace?
Copyright and license rights are really complicated. In every country of the earth the interpretation differs and as normal internet user one is quickly overwhelmed with the possibilities, but also with the obligations.
Those who upload something to common and mostly commercial platforms have agreed to the terms of use that all files are published under a special license. Those who didn't read the terms of use don't know about that which is why it seems to simple. In fact one cedes all rights on the file when uploading a photo. Such a nasty interaction should not happen in Stud.IP! Those who upload learning materials here shall continue to have the full control over the use of their own files.
What is important to us?
We don't get around a license on the learning marketplace. And we also don't want illegal wheeling and dealing. We assume that all those that provide a file freely on the marketplace also want that the file is used in the end and that it may be used. Therefore the following rules apply:
- Files shall be used for self-learning.
- The files shall be used inside courses, for example as slides.
- The files shall be distributed as learning material by the lecturer to the students.
- Money shall be no object.
Licenses on the market place
Fortunately, there are clever people who have given careful thought to the subject of licences. That is why we have what are known as Creative Commons licences. These are valid internationally and stipulate exactly what is required in the preceding text. This provides absolute legal certainty for everyone using the marketplace. These licences are also used very frequently outside the marketplace. Musicians use them to licence their raw music files, writers their poems, and lecturers, quite naturally, their lecture slides. The only real condition is that, when the materials are shared or edited, all authors must be credited transparently in some form!
This is a little warning: If you intend to gain millions of euros with your slides or exercise sheets and sample solutions, do not put these learning materials on the marketplace, since the use of all learning materials is free of charge (of course we also do not gain money with it) and the learning materials can be distributed at will once they have been downloaded. There is a CreativeCommons license that excludes commercial use. That license is impractical for the marketplace. Ask yourself this question: When lecturers use learning materials from the marketplace in their courses and project for example an information chart from a presentation onto a wall, would it be a commercial use? Yes, somehow, because they are paid for their work as lecturer. We put emphasis on legal certainty for all users. Therefore no learning materials are placed on our marketplace that exclude commercial use. Nonetheless you still have all the rights to publish your slides via another way using a publisher and get royalties.
What may I do with the learning materials?
Basically you can always do with learning materials in the marketplace:
- You can use these files yourself.
- You can distribute the files to other people, even upload them on other sites by yourself.
- Thereby, you must always name the original author of the file. Do that in a description text or inside the file.
- You can also modify and improve the learning materials.
- Thereby, you must also name the original author, respectively all previous authors of the learning material and put the new work under the same license, if necessary.