Whose Work Is It? Copyright, Creative Commons & AI

Build practical educator judgement about copyright, permission, Creative Commons, attribution, adaptation and the changing uncertainties around generative AI.

• Separate access, ownership, permission and credit — Being able to view, download or purchase a work does not automatically grant the right to copy, adapt or republish it.
• Read Creative Commons as a permission system — Creative Commons licences standardise permissions, but different licence elements allow different kinds of reuse.
• Attribute clearly and distinguish your changes — Good attribution helps people trace the creator, source and licence and understand what has been changed.
• Treat educational exceptions as contextual, not automatic — Fair use, fair dealing and other exceptions can permit important educational uses, but the rules differ across jurisdictions and situations.
• Handle AI copyright with explicit uncertainty — Generative AI raises separate questions about training inputs, human authorship, output rights, similarity and tool terms, and the answers are still evolving.