When you want to share a digital content as an OER, you have to share it lawfully. This means that first of all you have to identify whether the resources are protected by copyright or by other third party rights. Also in the case the resources are released under an open license, you have to make sure that the terms of the license, or of the licenses if you mix different resources, are respected. This means that you have to properly attribute the resources – in accordance to the specific requirements of their license – and also make sure they are compatible with the license you want to use for your own remix.

Moreover, if you want to share videos, audio recordings, forum conversations or other resources that consist of personal data, you have to make sure that all the data subjects are informed and that they give their consent to the publication. They shall be protected in their privacy pursuing data protection legislations.

An open license is a license agreement which gives the users more freedom when using someone else’s works. Through open licenses, authors grant permission for others to reproduce, adapt, or distribute the work. Examples of such licences include the GNU General Public Licence – the first and most widely used software copyleft licence – and Creative Commons licences. Open licenses are excellent tools to foster sharing: whoever wants to modify the content and distribute it can do so. Moreover, open licenses, such as creative commons, provide a set of granular conditions to specify the objectives and manners in which a resource can be shared, used and modified:

• Attribution, indicating that credit must be specified when others modify or use your work;
• ShareAlike, that are the terms in which others can share and display your work;
• Commercial, that is the possibility of using your work for profit or commercial purposes;
• Derivatives, that is the ability to modify and remix your work.