WHAT DOES PUBLIC DOMAIN MEAN?
When a work is in the public domain, it’s free for use by anyone for any purpose without restriction under copyright law. Public domain is the purest form of open/free since no one owns or controls the material in any way. Read more about Public Domain – copyright & fair use here.
WHAT DOES ROYALTY FREE MEAN?
Royalty free refers to the right to use copyright material or intellectual property without the need to pay royalties or license fees for each use, per each copy or volume sold or some time period of use or sales. Read more about Royalty Free licenses on this Wikipedia page.
WHAT IS CREATIVE COMMONS? (Most OER are this type of license)
Creative Commons copyright licenses forge a balance inside the traditional “all rights reserved” setting that copyright law creates. They give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardised way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work. You can read more about Creative Commons Licenses on their website here. The illustration shown below highlights some of the different license options available.
