Copyright in Practice

When we create any material for CDF, we need to consider the copyright of the material we use. This is true for images, music, text, and videos.

Types of Copyright

No Copyright (public domain and CC0)

Some material has no copyright. There are two common terms for this kind of material. In practice they mean the same thing.

• Public Domain (PD): This means it belongs to the public and no one privately. Usually this refers to material that at one point had a copyright but is not expired.
• Creative Commons Zero (CC0): This is a special license that means anyone can use for anything, including change it, and they do not even have to give credit. Usually this is used for new material that the creator decides not to copyright.

Examples of PD/CC0

• Pixabay.com: These images are released by their creator to be used by anyone for anything.
• Bhikkhu Sujato’s translations on SuttaCentral.net: Bhante Sujato has decided to let anyone do anything with any of his translations.
• Old sutta translations: Sutta translations that are more than 75 years old are in the public domain and can be used for anything.

Limited Copyright (BY, NC, etc)

There are a variety of Creative Commons licences that offer copyright with some restrictions. For example:

• BY: We would need to say who the original work was by.
• Non-Commercial (NC): Can only be used for things given away.
• No Derivatives (ND): The material cannot be remixed into something else. For example an image with ND could not be used to create an advertisement but it could be used as an illustration in a book.

In general we want to stay away from any of these for digital material because we can’t be sure how future volunteers will use the work we create.

Full Copyright

This is the most common copyright for creative material. You should assume that all the images you find in a google image search are going to be full copyright protected.

If we need to use an image with full copyright we need to contact the copyright holder. We have to get permission and follow any restrictions they place on us.

Examples

Lets look at some examples

Using an image on the cover of a book we are selling

We need absolute clear permission to use the image, mainly because we are selling. If we are sure the image is CC0, then it is fine to use. But if we have to give credit for the image, this will need to appear at the front of the book.

Using an image on a web page on our website

We need to have permission because it is going to be around for a long time and people all over the world will see. It is easy to give credit for the image if we use it, however future volunteers may not realize this and they may use the image in different ways that we don’t have permission for. Therefore it is best to use CC0 images.

Using an image in a one-time facebook post

We should have permission when possible, but since it is a temporary thing, being mostly sure we have permission is ok. However still we should not just take images from websites where there is a clear copyright.

4) Using an image as a poster that will only hang in the asapuwa

Since it is a very limited, almost private, not distributed, and educational use, we can probably use any image.