The big idea
Attribution isn't a legal formality — it's the basic courtesy that keeps creative communities working. When you name the original, you're being the kind of creator other creators want to collaborate with.
Remixing is everywhere — and that's good
Almost everything creative people make builds on something that came before. That's not a problem; that's how culture works. What matters is what you do with the work you're building on.
Every one of these formats depends on the existence of the original work. The game character exists because a designer created them. The meme format exists because someone filmed the original moment. The stitch exists because another creator made the clip you're reacting to.
Why we name the original — community, not compliance
There's a legalistic way to think about attribution: "credit the creator so you don't get in trouble." That framing isn't wrong, but it misses the point.
The better reason: creators appreciate being credited, and crediting them is how you show you understand where creative work comes from. When you make fan art and name the original artist, you're not just following a rule — you're participating in the community the way the community works.
Think about it from the other side. If someone remixed your work — made a video using your design, or added music to your video — would you want people to know you made the original? Would you be more willing to keep sharing your work knowing that people credit it properly?
Attribution is how creative communities sustain themselves. Creators who are credited keep creating. Creators whose work gets used without credit often stop sharing publicly.
Three types of content — different rules, same principle
Not all content has the same copyright situation. The type of content tells you what you're allowed to do with it and what credit looks like.
Creative Commons (CC)
Some creators choose to share their work with a Creative Commons licence. This is a set of pre-written permission levels — from "use freely if you credit me" all the way to "use for anything, including commercially." The most common one you'll encounter is CC BY, which means anyone can use the work as long as they credit the creator.
Look for the CC symbols near the work, or the words "Creative Commons" in the licence section. Wikimedia Commons, many photos on Flickr, and most Wikipedia text use CC licences.
CC BY = use freely, credit requiredCanadian Copyright Act
In Canada, copyright exists automatically the moment someone creates something — a drawing, a photo, a piece of writing, a song. No registration needed. Copyright lasts for the creator's lifetime plus 70 years.
Canada has fair dealing (not "fair use" — that's an American term). Fair dealing allows limited use of copyrighted material for education, research, criticism, news reporting, parody, and satire — without permission. Fan art made for personal use, parody, or commentary often falls here. But "I found it online" is not fair dealing.
The practical rule: if you can't see a CC licence, assume the work is all rights reserved and credit accordingly.
No CC licence = all rights reserved by defaultCrown Copyright
Works made by the Canadian federal or provincial government — maps, Statistics Canada data, government photos, official publications — are protected under Crown copyright. Many students assume government materials are free to use because they're from a public website. They're not automatically.
However, most federal government content is available under the Open Government Licence (OGL), which works like CC BY — free to use if you credit the source. Look for the OGL badge or "open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada" on the page.
Provincial government content varies — check each province's licence terms.
Government ≠ free — look for the OGL licenceA simple credit formula
You don't need a complicated format. A good credit contains three things: what the work is, who made it, and where you found it (plus the licence if you know it).
The formula
[work description] by [creator], [source], [licence if known]
Sources Named Running Count
A remix project often has more sources than you realise at first. Work through this example and name every source you find. Put a check in the box when you've written the credit.
Activity · Kid-leads
The Scenario
Common questions
What if I can't find who made the original?
Try to trace it — reverse image search for photos (images.google.com or TinEye), check the description of the video, look at the "tagged" or "shared from" chain. If you genuinely can't find it after searching, write "original creator unknown — traced from [where you found it]." That's better than nothing. If it's important enough to use, it's important enough to spend five minutes tracing.
What about memes? Nobody credits memes.
The original format-creating moment (the video or photo the meme is based on) often has a known source — "Success Kid," "Distracted Boyfriend," "Doge" all have photographers or subjects on record. When you know the source, naming it is the right thing to do. Many meme formats have been in circulation so long and changed so much that they've effectively entered the cultural commons — but that doesn't mean you can take any image and assume it's a meme format.
What about Roblox or Minecraft — aren't those companies' worlds?
The games themselves are owned by their companies (Roblox Corporation, Mojang/Microsoft). Inside those games, individual maps, assets, and builds are made by players who own the creative work they contributed. If you use another player's custom map or asset pack in your build, credit them — they made real creative choices that your work depends on. The game company owns the engine; the players own what they built in it.
What's the difference between Canadian fair dealing and American fair use?
Fair dealing (Canadian) is narrower than fair use (American). In Canada, limited use is allowed specifically for education, research, criticism, news reporting, parody, and satire. American fair use has a four-factor balancing test that is broader and more flexible. If you're making something for a Canadian school project or to parody something, Canadian fair dealing likely applies. If you see "fair use" arguments on American websites — those rules are for the US, not Canada.
✅ Caregiver check-in
- Can your child explain why crediting the original is about community, not just rules?
- Do they know the difference between a Creative Commons licence and the default "all rights reserved"?
- In the Sources Named activity — did they find all four external sources? Which one surprised them?
- Can they use the simple credit formula to name a source right now, from something they've remixed or used recently?
- Have they ever credited a source publicly — in a caption, a project, a post? If not: what would be a good first place to start?