Copyright Considerations#
Copyright law dictates how online book material can and should be created, maintained and shared. An author should understand a few key concepts, as well as best practices, in order to create a book that not only is a useful resource, but, also fairly reuses the work of others and, if provided with an open license, enables original content to also be reused.
Before getting into specific license types and our recommendations for properly attributing and referencing the work of others, let’s review a few key copyright-related concepts that are specific to online textbooks.
Tip
Here we only focus on aspects that are explicitly relevant to the creation and sharing of online books. Visit the TU Delft Copyright Information Point website for a more thorough explanation of these important concepts.
Copyright#
The legal right of the content owner to use, publish, distribute, share, and/or duplicate the work. Copyright is divided into legal rights and moral rights, depending on the material and circumstances under which it was created.
As indicated below, it is the moral rights that give you, the author, the right to be named as the creator of the work.
Types of Material#
It appears that copyright law distinguishes between two types of material (not including that of students):
Educational material
Articles, book (chapter), conference paper, etc.
We aren’t really sure what the definition of educational material is, but since pretty much everything we do is for teaching students or teachers about things, we are pretty sure it includes all of it. Perhaps it is easier to see a few examples of what is not included: journal article, book (chapter), conference paper.
Warning
The TeachBooks Team isn’t really sure when the “line is crossed” from educational material to book. More specifically, when the copyright owner is you (the author) or the University (your employer). For now, we assume that all books made by employees of a university are considered educational material.
Do you have a better answer than this? Let us know!
If you can read Dutch, the report Leermaterialen kiezen may shed some light on uncertainty about what is considered “educational material” (download PDF here).
You Don’t Own Everything#
The law is very clear on this, and the TU Delft Copyright page states it quite clearly:
Copyright to educational material made by a TU Delft teacher, rests with TU Delft. Amongst the other moral rights, the teacher retains the right to be named.
In case that wasn’t clear enough, TU Delft owns the copyright, not you! In other words, you should do this:
by Last, First © TU Delft, Year
Don’t do this:
© Last, First, Year
We recognize that this may make you angry, and we can relate: as teachers we put a lot of effort into the material we create. However, we have come to see that this is not a horrible situation; in fact, it is a good one. As the creator of the material you still retain moral rights to be named as the author, and there are other benefits as well. For example, the ability of other teachers that may take your place after you are gone to legally use and build upon your work in the future.
Tip
One reason copyright lies with TU Delft is because educational material must remain available for students when the author leaves. Additional justification can be found in the Open Educational Resources (OER) Policy Document, here.
The use of open licenses actually does not prohibit the author from using the material in the future, even if not employed at TU Delft. For example, if you publish a TeachBook at TU OPEN, with a CC BY license, you are always entitled to “take” the book with you when leaving by simply changing the cover.
Still don’t agree? Sorry. Please take this up with your nearest library or copyright expert and let us know if you get a different response! In the meantime, we will simply list ourselves as authors, use CC BY licenses and remember that TU Delft holds the copyright for our work produced as teachers.
Licensing#
This dictates how others may or may not be able to share or (re)use your work. It is (fortunately) becoming more common to include licenses with educational material (including books), which makes it much easier to understand how specific material can be used. Note that in the absence of a license, you must assume that nothing can be reused! In this case you have to ask permission to the copyright holder, which can be a time-consuming process. License considerations are described in more detail in the following pages.
Warning
The TeachBooks Team isn’t really able to explain why an author can dictate the license of material they create while TU Delft is the copyright holder. In other words, if I create a new assignment, I can choose to license it as CC BY.
Do you know? Please get in touch with us and help!
Summary#
There are many legal aspects to consider when creating an online book. Hopefully this page simplifies the story somewhat and indicates that there is a finite set of actions you should take to ensure that your book properly attributes and references the work of others, as well as indicates to others how they can use your work. This includes the following:
Choose a license and including with the source code and website of your book (we hope you choose CC BY!).
Clearly indicate where and how you have used the work of others in your book (i.e., within the content of your book).
Summarize all sources used in your book, as well as what may or may not be included under the license which you have chosen.
The following pages illustrate how to do this. It turns out to be not only a clear set of instructions for (re)users of your content, but also to help you remember what you have used in your book and where to find it later if changes are needed.