Tennessee Board of Regents

Copyright happens automatically when an item is produced; it does not need to be registered with the US Copyright Office to be copyrighted.  Copyright law prohibits certain unauthorized actions like copying, distributing, derivative works, etc. I believe the length of an item is irrelevant when it comes to copyright law.

An OER is copyright protected and has a copyright owner.  The owner then grants permission or authorizes actions like copying, distributing, editing, etc.  Owners can authorize these actions on their works if desired, which often happens on a case-by-case basis.  However, OERs are set up for owners to authorize certain actions upfront on a large scale.

That is my basic understanding, but I am certainly not a lawyer or an intellectual property expert.  I hope that helps!

Sincerely,

Sharon Holderman

Agreeing with/echoing Sharon - rest assured! "Length" is an irrelevant factor in copyright concerns. 

Hi Matt--

Agree with Sharon and Elizabeth. A work of any length can be copyrighted. The majority of OERs are copyrighted using one of the Creative Commons licenses.

Traditional copyrights are "all rights reserved," meaning that end-users would have to ask permission for things such as Sharon mentioned in her post. That process can be very tedious and time-consuming. Creative Commons licenses have "some rights reserved." They allow the copyright holder to decide ahead of time which rights will be given to end-users. The restrictions placed upon end-users depend on the license chosen. Here is a short video that is pretty good at explaining the features of the Creative Commons licenses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZvJGV6YF6Y

I, too, am not a lawyer. My explanation is based on my understanding of copyright and CC licenses.

Judy Westley