ADAPTATIONS
The other differences between the licenses hinge on whether, and on what terms, reusers can adapt and then share the licensed work. The question of what constitutes an adaptation of a licensed work depends on applicable copyright law (for a reminder, see chapter 2). One of the exclusive rights granted to creators under copyright is the right to create adaptations or modified versions of their works or, as they are sometimes called, “derivative works.” Examples of these adaptations include creating a movie based on a book or translating a book from one language to another.
As a legal matter, at times it is tricky to determine exactly what is and is not an adaptation. Here are some handy rules about the licenses to keep in mind:
Technical format-shifting (for example, converting a licensed work from a digital format to a physical copy) is not an adaptation regardless of what the applicable copyright law may otherwise provide.
- Fixing minor problems with spelling or punctuation is not an adaptation.
- Syncing a musical work with a moving image is an adaptation regardless of what the applicable copyright law may otherwise provide.
- Reproducing and putting works together into a collection is not an adaptation of the individual works. For example, combining stand-alone essays by several authors into an essay collection for use as an open textbook is a collection and not an adaptation. Most open courseware is a collection of others’ open educational resources (OER).
- Including an image in connection with text, as in a blog post, a PowerPoint, or an article, does not create an adaptation unless the photo itself is adapted.
NoDerivatives
Two of the CC licenses (BY-ND and BY-NC-ND) prohibit reusers from sharing (i. e., distributing or making available) adaptations of the licensed work. To be clear, this means that anyone may create adaptations of works under an ND license so long as they don’t share the work with others in adapted form. This allows, among other things, organizations to engage in text and data mining without violating the ND term.
