Copyright
Creative material is protected by US (and international) copyright law. Traditional Copyright equals "All Rights Reserved" by the author/creator or rights-holder. Rights-holder needs to be contacted for legal use, or argument for Fair Use/Educational Use/TEACH Act must be made.
*Please note that NOT all "academic use" is acceptable under copyright law! Contact your librarians if you have questions about the legal use of copyrighted material!
Public Domain
Material that has "fallen out of copyright" or aged out is considered to be public domain. Anyone can now use public domain material in whatever ways they wish.
Creative Commons
Creative commons is open licensing that means "some rights reserved" -- depending on the type of licensing, sharing and reuse may be permitted without seeking the rights-holder's permission. See information above on types of CC Licenses.
