Free-to-use resources

What are free to use resources?

Free to use resources encompass a wide range of materials made freely available online without the normal copyright restrictions. 

They include:

• open educational resources (OERs)
• open access publications and datasets
• free-to-use images, videos and music

Free to use resources have open licences, allowing users to access, copy, share and in some cases adapt and reuse the resource without needing copyright permission, subject to the specific terms of the licence attached to the resource.

Common open licences include:

• Creative Commons licences for publications and datasets
• Open-Source licences for software source code
• Public domain dedications, such as the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication. 

How you can use these resources

Openly licenced, free-to-use resources are particularly useful for:

• research projects and publications
• educational publications
• creative arts projects and publications
• conference presentations
• Griffith micro-credential teaching materials.

 Otherwise, permission or a licence fee is generally required to include someone else’s copyright work in these endeavours, unless when teaching Griffith students within Learning@Griffith where various statutory and other licences can apply.

Use it - cite it!

Good academic practice is to cite all resources you use, even Public Domain resources, such as those marked CC0, that do not require attribution. Use Griffith's Referencing guides for best practice citation methods for all resource types. Proper attribution is a legal requirement for Creative Commons licence use.

Creative Commons licences and copyright

Find out more about Creative Commons licences in the video below.

"Creative Commons licences explained" by Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand with support from InternetNZ,  is licensed under CC BY 3.0 NZ 

Consult Copyright matters or contact the Copyright and Information Policy Officer for assistance in understanding Creative Commons licences and other copyright matters.